Feel the Anger

I was educated by her well-researched, hour-long presentation.

Although it seems “bitin”.

The data on the House of Representatives' budget apportionment was comprehensive and used a timeline spanning several years, highlighting the period when Congressman Martin Romualdez was the Speaker and Yedda Romualdez was the Chairperson of the Committee on Accounts.

Two points were very informative: one, the substantial increase in the House of Representatives' internal budget; two, the large difference between the budget and the actual expense.

A common thread in all the expense items was that the Budget in the Appropriations Act was usually five times the actual expense. For example, the Confidential, Intelligence and Extraordinary expenses had a budget of 4.9 billion, but the actual expense was only 1.6 billion pesos.

The large difference suggests a motive or deliberate effort to create savings that will be reprogrammed for other expenses with the approval of the Speaker. But this was not thoroughly discussed by CJ Hirro. Her research falls short in this regard.

The approved appropriation for terminal leaves in 2025 was 613 million pesos, but only 12 percent of that amount was actually spent. For communications, 1.89 billion pesos were budgeted, but only 280 million pesos were used.

CJ Hirro pointed out that these amounts required only certifications, not receipts, thus opening the possibility of abuse or misuse of the funds.

Saving on a budget is not necessarily good for the economy. To a large extent, this means that Congress appropriated to itself amounts that it did not need. This deprives other funding purposes that directly benefit people and favor increased productivity.

But CJ Hirro suggested that the savings were directed to what she calls a “Martin Looter Fund.”

These accusations point to a repeat of a situation about forty years ago when the term “conjugal partnership” was often used by the political opposition to refer to President Ferdinand Marcos and the First Lady Imelda Marcos.

What CJ Hiroo fails to show is a link between the excessive budget that generated huge savings and graft and corruption. There can be no ghost expenditures because everything was supported by certifications that the amounts were spent.

This implies that unless there is a law clearly prohibiting or limiting the use of certifications, perpetrators of such practices are fully protected. There will be no evidence of wrongdoing when the wrongdoing is in accordance with the law and the rules and regulations of Congress.

The law may be hard, but it is the law.

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