Palace restores P65-B debt service cut in national budget

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has restored almost P65 billion worth of debt service cuts that lawmakers had realigned to fund their pork barrel projects this year. The President, in signing this year's P1.54-trillion national budget, inserted a clause allowing the release of the fund, which legislators spend on projects for their constituents, only when fresh revenues are generated from new tax laws passed by Congress. The cut on debt payments was restored because debt service is an automatic appropriation, Budget Secretary Rolando G. Andaya Jr. said on Tuesday. The Senate and House of Representatives ratified the 2010 budget as early as December 18, cutting the allocation for debt service by P64.6 billion to P276.212 billion. Lawmakers also cut P300 million from the budget of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and realigned it to the pensions and gratuities of military and police officers. On the other hand, Congress increased the allocations for education to P185.477 billion; infrastructure to P126.931 billion; pension and gratuity fund to P79.964 billion; land reform to P20.768 billion; health, to P30.404 billion; transportation and communication to P16.612 billion; and social welfare to P15.314 billion. — NPA, GMANews.TV