Marcos Jr. short of funds for 1st six months – Lagman

Rep. Edcel lagman. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / JAM STA ROSA

MANILA, Philippines — Veteran lawmaker Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay expressed concern on Saturday that the incoming administration of presumptive President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. may not have the funds it will need for priority projects, because the outgoing Duterte administration has already disbursed 90 percent of this year’s budget although it is still the first half of the year.

Lagman pointed out that unlike the Bayanihan laws signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in 2020, there is “nothing more” to be realigned in the 2022 national budget.

“Unless the new administration can find or create fresh funds, the ‘stimulus package,’ monikered as ‘Bayan Bangon Muli (BBM),’ will be mere sloganeering and simply a change in nomenclature from the original Bayanihan,” Lagman said in a statement on Saturday.

By releasing 90 percent of the budget, the Duterte administration is assured that its projects will continue, at least for this year, but it also deprives the incoming administration of cash it might need over the next six months.

The last time this happened was in 2010 when incoming President Benigno Aquino III complained that the budget for that year had already been depleted.

BBM stimulus bill

Lagman added that while there may be special-purpose funds, they are “untouchable as they are for mandatories, like salaries, pensions and for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council Fund or the calamity fund.”

The independent opposition lawmaker made the remarks in reference to the announcement of House Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, who will likely be the next speaker of the House, that the new House will create a stimulus bill to help Marcos Jr. address the impact of the ongoing pandemic.

The “Bayan Bangon Muli” bill is a play on the initials of Marcos Jr., who is Romualdez’s first cousin.

Postponement of village polls

Earlier this week, the House majority leader said the BBM bill will help the incoming administration tap available resources in this year’s budget for pandemic response.

No amount has been set yet for the stimulus package, although House ways and means panel chair and Albay Rep. Joey Salceda has promised to help Romualdez look for measures to fund this while “keeping fiscal space intact.”

One of the possible measures being eyed to help fund this package is the postponement of the December 2022 barangay and youth elections, which will translate to P8.141 billion in savings.

Romualdez said the BBM stimulus bill and the postponement of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls were likely to be part of the lower chamber’s priority list of measures.

But Lagman warned against deferring the elections to a later date, as he pointed out that the said polls had already been postponed.

There are pending bills in the House seeking to push back the barangay and youth elections to May 2024.

“Democracy at the grassroots should not be sacrificed by the expedience of postponing again the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections, which have already been previously reset. A new mandate is necessary for the overstaying barangay officials and the overaged youth leaders,” he said.

The December 2022 polls were originally scheduled to be held on May 11, 2020. The last barangay and SK elections were held in May 2018, due to a law signed by Duterte, which postponed the October 2017 polls.

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