Defensor troubled by budget hikes amid ‘zero’ added funds for vaccines

Anakalusugan party-list Representative Mike Defensor on Sunday raised concerns that Congress seemingly increased its own budget and that of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) under the 2021 appropriations bill yet did not provide additional funding for COVID-19 vaccine procurement.

In a statement, Defensor claimed that Congress gave Vice President Leni Robredo's office additional funding of P229 million for next year, bringing the OVP's total budget to P900 million.

The said augmentation in the OVP's budget, he said, would most likely go to her "financial assistance/subsidy" allocation, which he claims is equivalent to a "lawmaker's pork barrel," and is supposedly meant to purchase six new vehicles.

Defensor also alleged that the Senate and the House of Representatives increased their budget by P1 billion each, with a combined funding of P28.5 billion.

These increases in the OVP and Congress' budget were supposedly part of the P183 billion realignments that the two chambers made in the "programmed" or tax-funded portion of the budget, he said.

Yet, none of this amount was allocated to increase the budget for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines, he claimed.

“None of that amount was added to the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines that will save lives and livelihood, revive the economy and return the country to pre-pandemic normality,” Defensor said.

Under the final version of the proposed 2021 budget, Defensor said the allocation for COVID-19 procurement under the "programmed" funds remained at P2.5 billion as proposed by Malacañang.

“They augmented it by [P70 billion], but this was relegated to the ‘unprogrammed’ part of the budget that could be used only if there is excess tax revenue, a new tax or a loan,” he said.

“We could have funded this (vaccine procurement) from taxes instead of relying on lenders for money to buy badly-needed vaccines,” he added.

Yap clarifies

But despite the concerns of Defensor, House Committee on Appropriations chair Eric Yap was confident that the P70 billion in unprogrammed allocations would be funded.

"Kapag sinabing unprogrammed, mas mabilis pang mapondohan yun dahil [may] World Bank, maraming ibang nagpapautang sa bansa pero ang kondisyon nila ay COVID-related," Yap told GMA News Online in a phone interview.

Because of this, Yap said they gave an even bigger budget increase to the COVID-19 vaccine procurement than to the OVP and Congress themselves.

"Kaya yung unprogrammed na P70 billion sa vaccine, mas mauuna pa mapondohan yun kesa sa ibang programmed. Dahil yung programmed, kapag bumaba yung koleksyon natin siyempre meron pa tayong deficit niyan," he added.

Yap confirmed that the Senate and the House of Representatives increased their budget for next year by P1 billion each, as well as the budget hike for the OVP by around P200 million.

However, the increase in Congress' 2021 budget was intended to provide an additional salary for plantilla positions in the legislative branch in accordance with the Salary Standardization Law, he said.

"Hindi sweldo ng congressman ang tumaas, yung mga staff ng Congress na mahigit 4,000. Ito yung mga working staff, hindi yung mga mayayaman na staff ng congressman. Ito yung mga ordinaryong empleyado ng Kongreso kung saan sila ang nagpapatakbo ng buong Kongreso," Yap said.

"Yung idadagdag na budget, yun ang gagamitin para matustusan ang Salary Standardization na maitaas ang sweldo ng mga staff. Hindi yung staff ng mga congressman, yung mga plantilla position ng Congress," he added.

President Rodrigo Duterte was expected to sign the proposed 2021 General Appropriations Act on Monday.

While the budget signing is tentatively scheduled, Yap said he and his fellow lawmakers would wait in Malacañang on Monday in case it pushes through. — DVM, GMA News