Proposed P742-M budget cut for Ombudsman violates office’s fiscal autonomy, says exec

The Office of Ombudsman suffered a P742 million budget cut under the proposed national budget for 2021 in violation of what is required under the Constitution and Ombudsman law, it was learned on Monday.

Assistant Ombudsman Weomark Layson made the disclosure during the budget hearing on the Ombudsman’s proposed P3.36-billion budget for 2020 which is lower than the Ombudsman’s 2020 budget of P4.105 billion.

Article 11, Section 12 of the Constitution states that the Office of the Ombudsman enjoys fiscal autonomy, meaning its approved annual appropriations should be automatically and regularly released.

Section 38 of the Ombudsman law, on the other hand, states that  the Office of the Ombudsman shall enjoy fiscal autonomy and as such, “appropriations for the Office of the Ombudsman may not be reduced below the amount appropriated for the previous years and, after approval, shall be automatically and regularly released.”

“Our budget is lower by P742 million compared with our current budget which is not in accordance with fiscal autonomy as provided by the Constitution and RA 6770,” Layson told Senators.

“Our budget [for 2021] is also lower by P1.3 billion than the P4.678 billion that we asked for. We ask for the restoration of at least P1.2 billion [to the proposed budget] because P1 billion of that is for our personnel services and P200 million for capital outlay,” Layson pointed out.

Ombudsman Samuel Martires agreed, saying that there is a need to strengthen the Ombudsman’s field offices with additional manpower and a separate desk for the handling of administrative cases,

“This [P1 billion budget] is for employees’ benefits. We need to hire additional lawyers and investigators and additional bureaus in our field offices solely for administrative cases,” Martires said.

“Iyong mga failure to account tapos na-liquidate naman na sa COA [Commission on Audit], baka puedeng administrative charge na lang. Kung na-liquidate na, bakit pa iki-criminal case,” Martires added. — BM, GMA News