MANILA -- The Senate finance committee will adopt a provision in the House of Representatives version of the budget bill giving
Constitutional bodies allocations for unfilled positions, its chairman said Tuesday.
In his sponsorship of the proposed General Appropriations bill for 2012, Senator Franklin Drilon said P5.02 billion will be taken from the proposed Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF) and given back to the judiciary, Congress, Commission on Elections, Commission on Audit, Civil Service Commission, and the Office of the Ombudsman.
Under the budget proposed by MalacaƱang, all money for unfilled positions will be held in the MPBF until agencies produce documentation that a vacancy has actually been filled. The proposal is meant to curb the conversion of savings into bonuses.
The Supreme Court, along with other offices created by the Constitution, told the Senate during budget hearings that the MPBF violated their fiscal autonomy. Under the principle of fiscal autonomy, the Constitution guarantees that allocations to those offices are "automatically and regularly released."
The MPBF was also criticized by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, calling it a form of executive control over the bodies.
The House of Representatives gave the Constitutional offices back their allocations for unfilled positions but required that appropriations would be used only for "personal services requirements in filling unfilled positions." The House version of the budget bill required the offices to return savings from unfilled positions to the national treasury.
Drilon said the finance committee will introduce an amendment to that, however. The judiciary will be allowed to keep its savings to build the Manila hall of justice and to repair halls of justice around the country. (Jonathan de Santos/Sunnex)