Malacañang denies Binay’s allegations vs. LP’s use of BuB funds for Roxas’ campaign

Administration bet Manuel “Mar” Roxas II in San Mateo, Rizal. (Photo from Roxas’ official Facebook page)

MANILA – Malacañang on Monday decried allegations by Vice President Jejomar Binay that ruling Liberal Party (LP) is using about Php 100 billion of the government’s bottom-up budgeting (BuB) fund for Mar Roxas’ presidential bid.

Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, in a statement said, Binay, who is running for President in the May 2016 polls, “is atrociously ignorant of the concept of BuB.”

“Where has he been for the last five and a half years? BuB does not go directly to the person. The people on the ground directly determines what project will benefit the community and the budget goes to the project,” he said.

“Maybe VP should be told that BuB is participatory governance, and not a money-making, corruption undertaking which by the way, the VP has not explained the corruption allegations against him,” he added.

BuB is a budgeting system wherein projects are determined with the participation of local governments and civic societies.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) earlier said about 1,590 local governments have joined the BuB program since 2013.

About 42,221 projects are included in the Open BuB Portal and 13,712 of these have been completed as of December 1, 2015.

For 2016, the program has been allocated a budget amounting to Php 24.7 billion, to be used for 14,325 poverty reduction projects.

DBM has announced that for 2017, the program will be expanded to help 42,036 villages nationwide and each will be provided Php 1 million to fund one to two projects.