udget Secretary Rolando
Andaya is hardly bothered by insertions introduced by Congress in the
Palace-proposed budget for 2008. He said there is no need for President Arroyo
to veto the insertions. He can always opt not to fund them.
There lies the trouble. Congress spends half of the year
looking into the budget proposed by the Palace. Legislators are placed under
extreme pressure to come up with the budget package by the end of the year and
if that’s not possible, then at least within the first two months of the current
year.
When there is a standoff between the two chambers of
Congress, the Palace raises alarums over a reenacted budget. New capital
investments cannot be made. Infrastructure projects that need to be immediately
started will have to wait another year. The people who will benefit from these
projects will have to be kept waiting. And so on and so forth.
Congressional leaders, for their part, will be warning
colleagues they cannot afford a reenacted budget for that would give the
Executive a virtual blank check equivalent to the amount appropriated for
projects completed the year before. They have to pass the budget for the current
year at all cost. It’s their responsibility and duty, based no less on the
constitutional principle that Congress controls the government purse string.
Then at the end of the day, what do we have? It’s the Palace,
as Andaya reminded us, having the final say on which projects will be funded.
The principle behind the Palace’s ultimate control of spending is that the
execution and, thus, the timing of projects is the Executive’s call. As revenues
come in, the Palace decides where they will be spent, subject to the provisions
of the budget law.
It’s a beautiful example of the separation of powers, of
check and balance. The theory, however, takes as a given the sincere commitment
of the players to follow the underlying principle of the game.
What do we have instead? The budget is used either as a
carrot to cement support of allies or as a stick to bludgeon the opposition into
submission.
Andaya’s statement, therefore, should not come as a surprise.
That has been Arroyo’s way from the very start of her administration. The
Countryside Development Funds – pork, if you will – for the opposition is
impounded or released in trickles. That of allies is given as soon as money
becomes available.
If these CDFs can be released or blocked at will, how much
more the insertions which are on top of the fixed grants to individual
legislators?
Andaya’s statement fits right in with Gloria’s style of governance.
Insertions need not be vetoed, for that would take away the carrot and the
stick. It has nothing to do with good fiscal management. It is all about
rewarding friends and punishing enemies.
