Press Release
September 11, 2009

CHIZ WANTS TRANSPARENCY IN OP BUDGET DELIBERATIONS

Opposition Sen. Chiz Escudero yesterday said there should be transparency in the deliberations over the budget of the Office of the President, especially if there are issues surrounding expenses.

"There should be transparency, particularly in relation to the expenditures of the Office of the President. There are attendant issues like the travels of President Arroyo, as well as the infamous $20,000-dinner in New York and the aborted purchase of a P1-billion jet. We cannot just sweep all of these issues under the rug for the sake of 'tradition,'" Escudero said. The 2009 OP budget was P3.01 billion.

A Senate finance subcommittee chaired by Sen. Joker Arroyo yesterday approved without deliberations the proposed budgets of the OP, the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) and the judiciary for 2010.

Arroyo said he did not see the need to scrutinize the budget of the judiciary because the Senate should respect the budget of its co-equal branch.

He also said that by tradition, Congress and the OP do not touch each other's budget as it might cause infighting.

"That may be the rules in the committee but that is not the case when it comes to the plenary, especially when there are unresolved issues involving the OP. You cannot say that budget is untouchable," Escudero said.

"There is no rule that it should be done to those two offices (OP and OPS) and certainly not when there is an issue or question that needs to be answered or explained to the public. Tradition may have been the basis for Sen. Arroyo's approval of the budgets but I am not bound by that tradition," he added.

Escudero said any legislator should be free to question and scrutinize the budgets of any government agency including the OP because this is taxpayers' money.

"Governance is all about allocating scarce resources and that is what we should do with the budget," the senator said.

Earlier, the 39-year old senator said President Arroyo spent P693 million for her travels in 2007, enough to fund the Polytechnic University of the Philippines which had a budget of P665 million.

Mrs. Arroyo's travel expenses were also about three times higher than the budget of the Office of the Solicitor General.

News Latest News Feed