THE House committee on rules will look into the supposed questionable allocations by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in the national budget, said House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. in a statement on Thursday, December 13.
“The House rules committee will commence investigation on budget anomalies and questionable allocations by the DBM on January 3, 10 a.m., in Naga City,” Andaya said.
Andaya said the committee will require the regional director of the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH), two district engineers of Sorsogon City and the district engineer of Catanduanes to attend the probe.
The committee will also summon DBM Secretary Benjamin Diokno, at a later date, to shed light on issues related to the 2018 national budget and proposed 2019 national budget.
Andaya said he is interested, more particularly, in knowing the total amount of payables that the DBM owe to contractors and suppliers for 2018 and why Diokno inserted P75 billion in the DPWH’s budget for 2019.
During the House of Representatives’ Question Hour into the national budget on Tueasday, December 11, lawmakers grilled Diokno over the supposed P52 billion worth of insertions in the DPWH budget which DPWH Secretary Mark Villar and President Rodrigo Duterte allegedly did not know about.
In answer to the lawmakers’s queries, Diokno said there are no insertions in the 2019 budget and that he only augmented the appropriations for the DPWH to meet the demand for a higher budget for infrastructure. He also said the budget added to the DPWH is P75 billion and not P52 billion as claimed by lawmakers.
“The billion-dollar question: why then did Secretary Diokno insisted on inserting an additional P75 billion in the DPWH infrastructure projects for 2019 when the DBM has no money to pay for P100 billion debt to contractors and suppliers? Mag-iinsert ka ng P75 billion, di naman pala mababayaran mga utang? Hindi lang mukhang balasubas dito ang gobyerno. This will definitely cause an economic slowdown. Kung hindi mababayaran ng DBM ang P100 bilyon na utang nila. This is mismanagement. Malinaw na may kapabayaan dito si Secretary Diokno,” Andaya said.
“Malinaw na dapat sagutin ito ni Secretary Diokno. Unless he clears himself from this mess, there will be perpetual doubt that the people’s taxes are not safe under his stewardship,” he added.
Andaya said the House committee on rules will also subpoena the former and incumbent heads of the DPWH bids and awards committee who handled the projects of CT Leoncio, a Bulacan-based contractor which allegedly cornered billions worth of projects in Sorsogon and in other provinces.
Lawmakers earlier alleged that the DBM favors the said contractor and that Diokno also influenced the approval of the supposed questionable P2.8 billion worth of infrastructure projects in Sorsogon as his daughter is married to the son of Sorsogon Vice Governor Ester Hamor and Casiguran Mayor Edwin Hamor.
Diokno has since disputed all the allegations hurled at him by lawmakers.
The Magnificent 7 and Makabayan bloc did not support the resolution urging President Rodrigo Duterte to reconsider the appointment of Diokno.
On Wednesday evening, before the House of Representatives adjourned its session, it adopted a resolution urging President Rodrigo Duterte to reconsider the appointment of Diokno saying that he bypassed the authority of the president when he insterted the P75 billion for the DPWH.
The resolution, introduced by Minority Leader Danilo Suarez also said that there are “doubts as to the secretary’s integrity and use of his position accomodating and merging family with public interests.”
Members of the Magnificent 7 bloc, in a press conference, distanced themselves from the resolution.
“As far as we are concerned, we are abstaining from that decision because we will leave it to the President becasue he has the power to appoint and remove members of his official cabinet,” said Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman.
Lagman also supports the allegation of Andaya that some officials of the cabinet is in connivance with the DBM over the supposed budget mess in the national budget, saying he doesn’t think Diokno will make amendments on the budget on his own.
“I don’t think Secretary Diokno will do this on his own,” Lagman said, adding that he belive Diokno has the consent of the executive, more particularly the president.
“That is a strong possibility because all of this were in the NEP (National Expenditures Program) and the NEP as I have said is the product of the executive faction and that would include the members of the cabinet including the president,” Lagman added.
The Makabayan bloc lawmakers also distanced themselves from the resolution of the House of Representatives, saying the supposed war over pork, involving three factions: the House leadership led by House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the former leadership led by former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and the executive will only put the 2019 national budget in peril.
“Ano bang dahilan bakit nahohostage pa rin ang 2019 budget, kasi may makapangyarihang grupo dito na gustong palitan ang DBM Secretary,” said ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio in a press conference on Thursday.
Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate for his part said: “ang pagtatanggal ba kay Secretary Diokno matutugunan ba nito ang kakulangan ng budget ng mamamayan sa kanilang basic services?”
“Itong bangayan ng mga paksyon na ito... at the end of the d,ay ang talo dito ang mamayaman,” Zarate added.
The Makabayan lawmakers, in unity called on the Malacañang to put an end to the pork barrel system which they said is still existing in the government. (SunStar Philipines)