Lagman flags 700% increase in P14.22-B budget for polls
The renewed push for Charter change through a people’s initiative is “well-funded,” according to a lawmaker who pointed to a hefty P14.22 billion in the national budget allotted for elections, referendums, recall votes and plebiscites.This sum is a 700 percent increase from the P2.22 billion originally requested for the line item.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said the additional P12 billion was inserted by the bicameral conference committee before the P5.768-trillion national budget was sent for President Marcos’ signature last December.“The Charter change rampage has a surfeit of funds….Definitely, the push for Charter change by people’s initiative is well-funded,” Lagman said in a Zoom interview with reporters.
But House appropriations committee chair and Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co denied the allegation of his fellow lawmaker from the Bicol region.
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, Co said Lagman “falsely claimed and maliciously made it appear” that the bicameral conference committee inserted the P12 billion for Charter change.
“This is another one of his wild and irresponsible accusations…. This is the Comelec’s budget. No other agency, not even Congress, can touch or release even one centavo of it,” the party list congressman said.“Is Cong. Lagman saying that Comelec commissioners would use those funds for Charter change? If he can’t prove it, then he better shut up,” Co said.
Initial request
A check on the 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) showed that Comelec’s P40.103-billion budget included P14,229,617,000 for the “conduct and supervision of elections, referend[ums], recall votes and plebiscites.”
The poll body’s initial request for this purpose in the 2024 National Expenditure Program was only P2,229,617,000. Comelec’s requested budget was at P27.103 billion.A check on the 2023 GAA also showed that the funding was only at P2,245,606,000.
Lagman told reporters that the third reading copy of the House’s version of the 2024 national budget indicated P2.22 billion for Comelec’s conduct and supervision of elections, referend[ums], recall votes and plebiscites.
“They can’t deny that. It’s in black and white, printed in the GAA,” he said of the 700-percent increase from P2.22 billion to P14.22 billion.
“There are funds for Charter change and it was surreptitiously inserted. The funds are there, that cannot be denied. It was never explained to representatives and senators in plenary or in committee hearings,” he said.
‘Too much’
Lagman said the P14.22 billion is “too big for a people’s initiative.”
“This is too much if it will just fund a people’s initiative, which is just proposing an amendment on voting jointly…. I think there will be a second phase for the amendment agenda and these will be the substantial amendments to the Constitution, for example the liberalization of economic policies and possibly extension of term limits. That’s why there’s huge funds for this,” he said.
He added that the sum was bigger than the budgets of government agencies such as the Department of Migrant Workers at P9.896 billion, Department of Trade and Industry at P8.638 billion, Department of Agrarian Reform at P8.081 billion, Ombudsman at P5.534 billion, Department of Tourism at P 3.439 billion and Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development at P3.307 billion.
“I don’t know if the Comelec asked for this P12 billion, it’s possible that they did not. It was included surreptitiously so we should also ask the Comelec if they requested this or not,” he said.
Restored fund
Co said it was Comelec Chair George Erwin Garcia who “personally appealed” to Congress to restore the poll agency’s budget.
He said the poll body initially sought P19.4 billion, but this was reduced to P2 billion in the 2024 NEP.
During last year’s hearings on the budget, Co said the appropriations committee, which he heads, approved the P14.22 billion increase and this was reflected in the minutes of the bicameral meeting, as attested to by House public accounts committee chair and Abang Lingkod Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano.
“Was Cong. Lagman sleeping on the job that he missed it?” Co said.
According to him, the bicameral conference committee restored P12 billion of the slashed P17.4 billion.
Since Congress only restored part of Comelec’s request, P5.4 billion was included in unprogrammed funds for future funding, he said.
The added funding, he said, was meant to cover special elections or referendums like the recent plebiscite on the proposed conversion of the City of San Jose del Monte into a highly urbanized city.
“Districts who lose representation for one reason or another deserve to have special elections where they can choose their leaders. That’s the purpose of the budget for the “conduct and supervision of elections, referend[ums], recall votes and plebiscites,” Co said.He added: “The Comelec and chairperson Garcia were so thankful to the bicameral conference committee for accommodating their request, you can ask them.”
‘Exorbitant’
Lagman, in response, said Co should “stick to the facts and truth that P12 billion was inserted by the bicameral conference committee.”
The Albay lawmaker maintained that Comelec, through Garcia, “did not request… the P12 billion augmentation.”
Lagman said he coursed his inquiry on the P12 billion insertion through a mutual friend.“What Chairman Garcia requested to be restored was inadequately given back to the Comelec and what was inserted was for the subject exorbitant augmentation, which he did not request,” he said. INQ
