MANILA, Philippines— Opposition senators took to the floor on Wednesday to deliver the traditional “turno en contra (opposition's turn)” on the proposed 2011 national budget, which Senator Joker Arroyo described as a “stagnation budget.”
Arroyo said he found it difficult to support the P1.645 trillion budget proposal next year as it was “bereft of the tools for growth.”
“It is a prescription for stagnancy, an anti-growth budget,” he said, citing for instance the reduced appropriations for public works and highways and agriculture.
While the budget of some departments had been reduced, Arroyo noted what he described as an “overconcentration” on the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), which was given an allocation of P21 billion for its conditional cash transfer (CCT) program alone.
Four billion pesos or 19 percent of the CCT allocation, the senator said, would be spent for the gargantuan administration cost to distribute the P17 billion CCT fund to its beneficiaries.
Arroyo said the distribution cost was more than the budget of the Department of Tourism (P1.5 billion) and the Department of Trade and Industry (P2.5 billion).
“The administration says it will not impose new taxes. Fine. But where will they get the monies to fund its programs? Through borrowings. The refuge of every administration,” he said.
This is the reason why, the senator said, he would again insert a general provision in the budget bill that would limit the total indebtedness of the national government and any of its agencies and offices to 55 percent of the latest GDP (gross domestic product) unless it obtained prior consent from Congress.
He said he inserted that provision in the 2010 budget but former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo “unceremoniously vetoed it.”
“I hope President Noynoy [Benigno Aquino III’s nickname] would not do the same,” said the outspoken senator.
After Senator Arroyo, Senate Minority Alan Peter Cayetano also took the floor to deliver his own turno en contra speech.
First posted 21:39:22 (Mla time) December 01, 2010 Maila Ager
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MANILA, Philippines—Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. on Monday gave guarantees that in his term he will work for the passage of the compensation bill for victims of the Marcos dictatorial regime.
He said the bill has been pending in the past congresses and has been extensively discussed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
“I understand that the human rights compensation (bill), at least (those) covering violations during the Marcos period had almost passed the Senate and had also passed in the House. Hopefully during my term as Speaker, this will be passed. I’m all for it,” he told reporters in an interview.
Speaking at a gathering to commemorate the International Human Rights week in the House, Belmonte said that the chamber will push for measures that will uphold human rights such as the strengthening of the Commission on Human Rights, establishing of human-rights centers, and the bill prohibiting gender discrimination.
Satur Ocampo, former Bayan Muna party-list Representative and chairperson of Makabayan alliance, said it is high time to have such a law that would give justice to the victims of the Marcos dictatorship.
Ocampo also called for the passage of the anti-enforced disappearance bill.
House Bill No. 954 mandates the compensation to the 9,593 class suit plaintiffs and the 24 direct action plaintiffs “who filed and won the landmark human rights case against the estate of Ferdinand Marcos in the US Federal court system in Hawaii.”
The bill was filed by party-list Representatives Teddy Casino and Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna, Antonio Tinio of Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis, Raymond Palatino of Kabataan, and Luz Ilagan and Emmi de Jesus of Gabriela.
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