Marathon meetings were held this week in the Senate and the House of Representatives in line with the budget season leading to the approval of the ever-increasing P5.7-trillion budget for 2024.
The yearly “budget-serye” (budget series) never fails to disappoint in bringing out issues that extract the tiniest of details in our government that are given monetary figures in the form of public funds, amounting to millions and even billions of pesos. And every year, we see how the majority gets its way, especially early in the Administration, such as where we are right now.
My biggest pet peeve in these sessions is the consistent usage of incompetent sponsors for specific government offices who deserve much better. These sponsors, whose mandate is to defend their sponsored government office before the increasingly knowledgeable and wise interpolators, must be technically and legally verbose and experts in the Philippine budget process.
Clearly, this is all wishful thinking since we see neophyte, inarticulate, incapable, yet extremely loyal sponsors who would do anything to prove their worth to the powers that be, even if it means being humiliated and trending on social media for the wrong reasons.
Indeed, this is the time for the opposition lawmakers to shine and feast on the mental shortcomings of their counterparts. The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives finds itself in the limelight as it engages in its own “hunting season” against willing victims, may they be Cabinet secretaries or, gasp, the Office of the Vice President, whose massive confidential and intelligence funds are being questioned repeatedly anew.
Lo and behold, we have a statement from the House Appropriations Committee chairman that these OVP allocations will be realigned to more deserving government agencies, i.e., the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine Coast Guard. However, we have yet to see the indisputable evidence to prove this happened. Nevertheless, it is a fair and conclusive presumption to say that the majority will still get its way despite the awkward and unconvincing defenses and sponsorships in favor of the government agencies.
Is the budget process faulty? It appears not since the correct agencies still receive what is due them.
The problem, in my humble opinion, lies in the implementation of these budgets granted to them. For instance, the alleged spending by the OVP of its confidential funds amounting to P125 million in 19 days or 11 days, whichever is true, is a problem of implementation, not allocation. What prevented the OVP from spending this amount earlier? What’s likely is that the OVP rushed the spending so they would not be accused of failure in spending public funds for the right and correct reasons.
The other issue on the alleged unconstitutional transfer of funds by the Office of the President to the OVP, while the GAA of 2023 was in effect, is likewise the product of faulty, inefficient implementation of the law. It is illegal for a government office, such as the Office of the President, to casually assign a portion of its fund to the OVP because this renders the budget process faulty and even useless.
If there is something that may be attributed to faulty implementation, it can be its failure to set proper safeguards that would lead to the enforcement of new ones. In fact, a Supreme Court decision on the alleged unconstitutional transfer made by the OP to the OVP is in the works.
This would place the 2023 “budget-serye” on record as the landmark budget season that would define those in the coming years.
For comments, email him at darren.dejesus@gmail.com.