ACTIVATE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE ON THE BUDGET - PIMENTEL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today urged the Senate and the House of Representatives to now create and activate a joint congressional oversight committee that will monitor and check the utilization of the P1.41 trillion national budget and fund releases made by the Malacañang.

Pimentel said the formation of the oversight committee gains urgency in view of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's veto of a number of provisions in the 2009 general appropriations act (GAA) which were inserted by Congress to safeguard against misuse or illegal diversion of funds.

Among the portions of the GAA vetoed by the President were the provision that would require the President to submit to Congress a breakdown of the releases of lump sum appropriations and their recipients and the provision requiring the concurrence of and consultations with lawmakers in the implementation of school buildings and other public infrastructure projects.

Also vetoed by the President was the P50 billion cut from the debt service allocation and its realignment to productive expenditures, including a Pl0 billion economic stimulus fund.

"These provisions were incorporated by Congress into the budget law to enhance transparency in the disbursement of taxpayers' money. These were also intended to limit the discretion of the President in the utilization of funds, specially lump sum appropriations, which has always been prone to abuse," Pimentel said.

"Simply stated, these provisions were meant to curb wasteful spending and rampant graft and corruption and strengthen the system of checks and balance between the executive and legislative branches. The safeguards were necessary and the intention was good, but why did Mrs. Arroyo veto them? By doing so, this only betrays that her repeated promise to clean up the government rings hallow."

Pimentel said that Congress can still remedy the situation by overriding the presidential veto through a two-thirds vote of all the members of the Senate and the House. Failing to do so, he warned, would be tantamount to tolerating the constitutional power of Congress over the purse to be trampled upon by the Chief Executive. He said this will also have the effect of a huge portion of the national budget being reduced to, and treated as, presidential pork barrel.

However, he said it would be wishful thinking to expect the administration-dominated House of Representatives to go along with a move to overturn the veto.

Given this circumstance, Pimentel said the next option left to Congress is to create the congressional oversight committee on the budget based on the consensus reached by Senate and House leaders when they were deliberating on the 2009 national budget last year.

As envisioned, the oversight committee will be composed of senators and congressmen designated by the leadership of both chambers. It will be co-chaired by the chairman of the Senate finance committee and the chairman of the House appropriations committee.

The senator from Mindanao also warned that the presidential veto on the transparency and anti-corruption provisions has only fueled fears that funds at the disposal and discretion of the President will be siphoned off to the campaign of administration candidates in the 2010 elections like what happened in previous years.

He said it is not far-fetched that fraudulent transfer of funds similar to the P728 million fertilizer fund scam prior to the 2004 elections would be repeated in the coming poll campaign.

Actually, Pimentel said that this anomaly has started to happen as shown by the expensive newspaper ads put up by prospective presidential and senatorial candidates from the Cabinet trumpeting their achievements on the occasion of the President's 62nd birthday celebration on April 5.