Akbayan: Special provision in 2010 budget may weaken next President

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's allies in congress have inserted a provision in the 2010 budget that might weaken the next president’s control of public funds, civic groups said Thursday, amid reports that she is eyeing the House speakership. At a press conference in Quezon City, officials of Akbayan party-list and the Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD) said the anti-impoundment provision inserted in the bicameral version of the P1.541-trillion national budget for 2010 effectively prevents the next president from withholding funds, such as pork barrel, that have been allocated by Congress. While Akbayan and IPD said they were not against the essence of the provision, they said its timing was "highly suspicious," considering that Mrs. Arroyo is seeking a congressional seat for Pampanga's second district. "Even as Gloria has the power to line veto, it would not be in her interest to veto this anti-impoundment provision especially that she would now be a beneficiary of pork barrel funds as a result of her bid to become a congressional representative," said Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello. "This is really part of the strategy to, in fact, retain power on the part of GMA and to deny power to a coming president," Bello said, noting reports that Mrs. Arroyo is aiming to become House Speaker and eventually prime minister if the push for Charter change succeeds. Special provision in the GAA According to Bello, the special provision, inserted during the bicameral conference committee on the 2010 budget late last year, says that "the President shall release all budgetary allocations" contained in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) except in two instances:

• When the President asks Congress to impound or permanently withhold the release of a particular appropriations item, and Congress does not act on it within 45 days, unless during the same period, the Congress denies or rejects the proposal by a simple majority vote; and
• When the President temporarily defers the release of a particular appropriations item upon a prior written notice to Congress, which deferment shall continue unless Congress stops or rejects the deferment through a simple majority vote.

IPD executive director Jude Esguerra questioned the timing of the insertion, pointing out that it would create a "qualitatively different" system than what is being implemented under Mrs. Arroyo's presidency. Akbayan legal counsel Ibarra Gutierrez pointed out that Bello and fellow Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros themselves had filed an anti-impoundment bill last February and are supporting the reduction of the President's powers over the release of funds such as pork barrel. But the insertion of an anti-impoundment provision in the General Appropriations Act was legally unsound and short-sighted, he said. 'GAA should only contain budget items' Based on the Constitution, Gutierrez said, only items about budgetary allocations should be contained in the General Appropriations Act, which means that Congress cannot amend laws through the GAA. He pointed out that the anti-impoundment provision in effect revises provisions of the Administrative Code of 1987 that empower the Executive branch to authorize the suspension or complete withholding of certain funds. "The problem with a GAA enactment of an anti-impoundment provision is it's only good for a year," added Gutierrez. "What we want is a more long-term kind of institutional reform." 'Partisan sound and fury' But Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, a stalwart of Mrs. Arroyo's Lakas-Kampi-CMD, dismissed protests over the insertion of the anti-impoundment provision as "partisan sound and fury." "This is clearly constitutional as it seeks to fully implement the Congressional authority over the purse. What Congress appropriates must not be derogated by the Executive’s unrestricted authority to impound budgetary allocations," said Lagman, senior vice chairman of the House Appropriations committee. "This is not intended for the benefit of a solitary prospective Member of the House of Representatives but this provision would benefit Congress as an institution and assures the release of budgetary allocations not otherwise directly vetoed by the President," added Lagman. Lagman also pointed out that the insertion of the provision was "a bipartisan initiative" endorsed by 138 representatives, including many members of the minority bloc, and was concurred in by the Senate panel in the bicameral conference committee hearing last December. The House leader likewise said the anti-impoundment provision was not meant to protect the pork barrel, which, with an allocation of P10.861 billion, is only "a small portion" of the P1.541-trillion national budget. House Speaker Prospero Nograles had earlier said the 2010 General Appropriations Bill would be sent to Mrs. Arroyo for signing on January 7 or 8. If Mrs. Arroyo does not sign it immediately, it will lapse into law 30 days after Malacañang receives it. – Johanna Camille Sisante/JV, GMANews.TV