Arroyo Assailed Over Budget Veto

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel,
Jr. (PDP-Laban) today questioned President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo’s veto of section 97 of the general
provisions of the GAA which states that the P1.227
trillion national budget shall take effect on Jan. 1,
2008 although she signed the GAA only on March 11.

Instead of following the congressional intent for a
retroactive application of the GAA, the President
directed that it will become effective 15 days
following its publication in the Official Gazette.

“The implication is that the delay will allow her to
suck up all allocations for abandoned or finished
projects of the fiscal year 2007 and spend it freely
without the inhibitions that the 2008 GAA has
stipulated,” Pimentel said.

He said the prospective application of the GAA means
that new programs funded under the new budget law will
be implemented only in April. It also means that only
75 percent of the additional funding allocation will
actually be implemented this year.

Due to the delay in the approval of the 2008 GAA, the
government financed its operations through the 2007
budget law, which was automatically appropriated in
accordance with the Constitution.

Pimentel also warned Mrs. Arroyo against using her
control over the congressional pork barrel as a tool
for reprisal against lawmakers who are critical of her
administration.

Pimentel criticized the President for vetoing a
provision in the 2008 general appropriations act which
was intended to be a safeguard against the selective
practice of impounding the allocations of senators and
congressmen from the Priority Development Assistance
Fund (PDAF). The provisions also makes it mandatory
for budget authorities to release such funds within
the fiscal year.

He said the President vetoed the provision under the
guise of “ensuring sound and efficient financial
programming, prudent spending and fiscal management,
including expenditure rationalization.”

“The experience of lawmakers in the past several years
betrays the fallacy of her verbal acrobatics,”
Pimentel said.