{"id":117999,"date":"2017-09-15T05:18:41","date_gmt":"2017-09-15T09:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=117999"},"modified":"2017-09-15T05:18:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-15T09:18:41","slug":"2018-budget-may-have-pork-barrel-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/09\/15\/2018-budget-may-have-pork-barrel-watchdog\/","title":{"rendered":"2018 budget may have \u2018pork barrel\u2019\u2014watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The House of Representatives on Thursday approved the 2018 national budget in its second reading. (ROBINSON NI\u00d1AL JR.\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA, Philippines\u2014A Philippine poverty and human rights watchdog alleged that \u2018pork barrel\u2019 might still be existing, this time, in the proposed P3.767-trillion 2018 national budget.<\/p>\n

Social Watch Philippines (SWP) said in a statement that only 59% (PhP2.269 billion) of the national budget is being deliberated. The remaining 41% is left unexamined.<\/p>\n

\u201cSWP found that the budget which are usually outside the purview of congressional and public scrutiny are the following: special purpose funds (SPFs) amounting to P592.38 billion, P980.8 billion for automatic appropriations and P75.34 billion for unprogrammed funds,\u201d SWP said.<\/p>\n

According to SWP convenor Isagani Serrano lump sums \u201cindicate an inherent vulnerability in the budget because of limited transparency and accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce these are approved, these are vulnerable to reductions, transfers, and \u2018adjustments\u2019, he added.<\/p>\n

Among the SPFs in question are the P145.75 billion-Pension Gratuity Fund (PGF), P84.45-Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF), and the P13-billion Contingent Fund.<\/p>\n

According to Rene Raya, another SWP convenor, the allocated funds for SPFs grew along with the national budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pinpoint that the budget for pension and personnel benefits may seem to be overstated, with appropriations amounting to P15.623 billion for PGF and P14.034 billion for MPBF that were unreleased in 2016.\u00a0 The 136% increase for fund subsidies for contingencies is also a cause for concern, especially with the special provision augmenting Presidential travel expenses,\u201d Raya said.<\/p>\n

He added that the funds allocated in the aforementioned SPFs can be rechanneled to programs that are \u201cpro-poor, pro-equality, yet unfunded or underfunded budgets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Dr. Ma. Victoria \u2018Marivic\u2019 Raquiza, also SWP convenor, said that the issue of pork barrel may still be alive despite the declaration of Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), a lump sum allocation fund found in earlier budgets, as unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith lump sums still tucked in key agencies, the practice of pork barrel politics remains possible,\u201d she said, referring to the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), Technology Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and Commission on Higher Education (CHED).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA, Philippines\u2014A Philippine poverty and human rights watchdog alleged that \u2018pork barrel\u2019 might still be existing, this time, in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":118006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-katherine-padilla","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}