Opposition lawmakers on Wednesday criticized the Aquino administration for presenting the chamber with an ‘incomplete' budget proposal or National Expenditure Program (NEP). In a press conference, House minority leader Edcel Lagman and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said the powers of Congress to scrutinize the proposed budget was “demeaned” when the Aquino admin presented an incomplete budget plan. The lawmakers said the NEP should include: New general appropriations; automatic appropriations – debt service and Internal Revenue Allotment); continuing appropriations – such as salaries; and other appropriations – such as net lending and tax refunds. Lagman said the P1.645 trillion proposed budget presented by Budget Secretary Florencio Abad to Congress covered only new appropriations. He said some P711.5 billion other expenses were not reflected in the proposed budget. Automatic appropriations During the congressional hearing, Abad said there are existing laws that provide for automatic budget appropriations. “I assure you that ‘yung proposed budget is in line with the Presdent's instruction to reduce the budget deficit,” he said. In a press statement, Abad said they did not include the automatically appropriated portions of the budget in the NEP to prevent a repeat of what happened in the 2010 budget. He recounted how Congress had to adjust downwards the interest rate assumption to save P64.6 billion in interest payments. Congress then transferred the same to general appropriations for Congressional initiatives. The details of the automatic appropriations will still be available in the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Funding document, Abad said. “We want our national budget to be kept in check, towards mitigating it in the long-term. I believe that the current Congress will join us in instituting fiscal responsibility,” Abad said. Lagman, however, believed the intention of the Aquino government in doing this is to “deprive Congress the right and the authority to scrutinize other expenditures like continuing appropriations and automatic appropriations.” “[They did this] on the pretext that there are already enabling laws for these expenditures. That is not correct. That is an erratic presentation because the Congress has the right to review even the automatic appropriatons,” he said. Lagman urged the House appropriations committee to submit a bill that would include all kinds of expenditures “so that there will be complete transparency”. He insisted that the totality of government expenditures should be included in the NEP, “because Congress should not be deprived of the opportunity, of the right, of the power to review all kinds of expenditures including the automatic and continuing appropriations.”
