Chiz wants
line-item budgeting of P70-B BBL funds
By Office of Senator Chiz
Escudero
April 14, 2015
PASAY CITY – The
proposed Bangsamoro government stands to receive at least P70 billion
during its first fiscal year alone, but Senator Chiz Escudero wants a
line-item budgeting of this allocation just like the appropriation of
every local government unit in the country.
Escudero, whose Senate
Committee on Finance has come out with a breakdown of the total
funding under the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) proposal, said the
spending package could still go up.
“This is just a ballpark
figure. They can impose taxes and fees and charges on their own. They
can explore and exploit natural resources and these have not yet been
factored in,” Escudero explained.
Based on the computation of
the finance committee, P25.2 billion of the P70 billion will come from
the Annual Block Grant; P7 billion from the Special Development Fund;
P1 billion from the Transition Fund; P12.6 billion from the National
Government Subsidy; P19.9 billion from the Internal Revenue Allotment
(IRA); P1.7 billion from the ARMM/Bangsamoro collections; and a
one-time P2.6 billion Normalization Fund.
These allocations, Escudero
said, do not include revenue-generating measures that the Bangsamoro
government is empowered to impose such as taxes and fees.
He said he will push for the
line-item budgeting of this amount during the deliberation of the
proposal in the Senate.
“I don’t question the amount
per se. I have always said that Mindanao should get its fair share
from the government. But we want to know how, where, when and who will
spend this. Will it be beneficial to all Bangsamoro people? Will it go
to where it should go?” Escudero pointed out.
He added: “Let's face it.
The government is providing P70 billion in one swoop, and every
Filipino contributed his or her hard earned money there. We want to
know if this will be spent fairly and judiciously to all Bangsamoro
people, whether they belong with the MILF or not.”
Itemizing the budget, he
further said, will also show redundancy of funding as already shown in
the lump sum proposal.
“The current ARMM-IRA share
for 2015 is at P18 billion. In the additional LGU (local government
unit) under the BBL proposal, there is an additional P1.80 billion
share, which makes the IRA share at P19.8 billion. BBL still wants a
continuous IRA share coming from different parts of the Philippines
even after the law is passed, but the national government will not
have a single centavo share from their IRA,” Escudero explained.
He also debunked the
position of the government peace negotiators that the BBL does not
have a high price tag in terms of budget. He said the Annual Block
Grant alone, which is by far the biggest amount among the breakdown,
seems to have been left out in terms of numbers in the proposal.
“The proposal did not
specify the exact amount of this fund. But take note that under
Article XII, Section 15 of the BBL proposal, the block grant cannot be
lower than the last budget received by the ARMM. For 2015, ARMM
received P25.22 billion,” he said.
“We are pouring in so much
money in the region. What are we, our people, getting out of it?
That’s why we have to study it carefully, specify all items carefully,
fairly and judiciously,” Escudero said.