An aerial photo of Cebu City. | CDN File Photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The country’s 2021 budget was hastily approved in the House of Representatives.
Rep. Rodrigo Abellanosa of Cebu City’s south district said that budget deliberation was terminated after House Speaker Allan Peter Cayetano, whom he referred to as an “authoritarian leader,” ordered the suspension of their plenary session scheduled on November 16, 2020.
Read: Budget ‘as good as reenacted’ due to Cayetano’s push for early break – senators
Because of the allocation’s immediate approval, many of the congressmen like himself were unable to scrutinize especially the appropriation for infrastructure projects that are to be implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Abellanosa said that the very “small” allocation that Cebu City is set to receive for infrastructure projects in “unfair.”
While many of the Local Government Units (LGUs) had to contend with very little appropriations, Cayetano and his allies were “wallowing in tens of billions of DPWH allocations for their districts while the two districts of Cebu City, which contributed substantially to the national coffers, are afforded only a measly fraction of a billion each.”
“This is a big insult and affront to the people of Cebu City. Alkansi gyod kaayo ang mga tawo ani. (The people have been shortchanged),” Abellanosa told CDN Digital in a phone interview on Thursday, October 8.
In the 2021 budget, Cebu City north district is to get P992,436,000 worth of projects while the south district gets a P912,787,000 allocation.
The allocation, Abellanosa said, does not reflect the amount of taxes that Cebuanos contribute to the national coffers.
Aside from questioning infra allocation, Abellanosa said that legislators were also unable to review the budget for other government agencies like the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Department of Health (DOH), and Department of Education (DepEd).
He said that these agencies should undergo scrutiny because of its involvement in the government’s COVID-19 response and its responsibility to help Filipinos adapt to the new normal.
Abellanosa said that the “term-sharing fiasco” involving Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco has become very detrimental to the budget review functions of the House of Representatives.
While he denies supporting Velasco, Abellanosa said that Cayetano appears to be using the immediate passage of the 2021 budget as a tool to hold onto power.
“Some lawmakers were asking about the huge budget allocated for Speaker Cayetano and his close allies. But instead of answering, the Speaker decided to railroad the budget, compose a group of his friends to amend it, and suspend session to have an early break and to hold on to power,” he said. / dcb