House should have paid for delegation, former budget chief says

The House of Representatives should have paid for the expenses of its own delegation to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's controversial United States trip, a former budget secretary said Wednesday. Emilia Boncodin made the statement amid questions over who paid for the expenses of the more than 20 lawmakers who joined Mrs. Arroyo. Neither the House, the Palace, nor the US government admitted having shouldered the expenses. [See: A mystery in the House: Who paid for members' US trip?] "Ang Congress may budget din sila so dapat sila magbabayad nun. So kung sino kasama, empleyado ka ng ganito, dapat ‘dun ka kukuha ng budget mo (Congress has a budget, so they should pay for their own expenses. If you are an employee of a certain institution, you should get your budget from that)," she said in an interview over GMA News' Unang Hirit. Boncodin served as head of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) in the early years of the Arroyo administration. She was one of the cabinet secretaries who resigned and urged Mrs. Arroyo to step down in 2005 at the height of the "Hello Garci" scandal, in which the President was accused of cheating in the 2004 presidential elections. Speaker Prospero Nograles, who was with the delegation, said in a press conference Monday that the House has not spent anything for the trip. He said, however, that he has told his colleagues who joined the trip to be prepared to pay for their own expenses if the House receives a billing. According to Nograles, host countries usually pay for basic expenses like airfare and accommodation of invited dignitaries, but he is not certain whether the US government or Malacañang shouldered the expenses of lawmakers on the US trip. In response, the US Embassy in Manila said the US only provided security for the presidential entourage. Meanwhile, Susana Vargas, Malacañang's deputy executive secretary for finance and administration, said the Palace only paid for the expenses of Nograles and Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Manuel "Lito" Lapid. Nograles has not replied to GMANews.TV's follow-up inquiry as of posting time. But other lawmakers who were part of the House delegation maintained that they do not know who paid for their airfare and hotel accommodations at the Willard Intercontinental in Washington DC and at the famed Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, who earlier affirmed that the President, Cabinet members, and lawmakers on the US trip flew business class, said, "I really do not know ’yung nagbayad niyan (I really do not know who paid)." "I just received travel documents and advisory," he told GMANews.TV in a phone interview Wednesday, adding that he had the impression "Malacañang took care of everything." Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez--who had earlier claimed that he paid for the $15,000 dinner Mrs. Arroyo and her entourage had at Bobby Van's Steakhouse — said travel documents were also given to his office by protocol officers of Congress. "I was made to understand that I was part of the official delegation," Suarez told GMANews.TV in a phone interview on Wednesday. He said, however, that like Abante he is willing to shoulder costs incurred during the trip. Abante, Suarez, and other members of the House delegation said they went to the US with Mrs. Arroyo to meet with their counterparts in the US Congress regarding the US Congress-approved benefits for Filipino World War II veterans. Suarez added that they also lobbied for the passage of another bill providing benefits for the children of war veterans, as many of the veterans have already passed away. - GMANews.TV