No such thing as Valentine's Day bonus in budget
No such thing as Valentine's Day bonus in budget
Posted 11:19pm (Mla time) Feb 13, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 14, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
FILIPINOS are in near-rebellion over the increases in taxes and government fees, most particularly, in the value-added tax. The government's excuse for the increase is the budget deficit and the foreign debt. The government needs funds to pay for them. Where else to source them but from the taxpayers?
But at the same time that the Arroyo government is squeezing the taxpayers, it throws away P3.6 billion in a so-called Valentine's Day bonus to the 1.2 million government employees. How much of hard-earned money will each worker have to part to fund the P3.6 billion?
The unkindest cut of all is that the money is going to a particularly ungrateful bunch of leeches. Instead of being grateful for the bonus (which private employees will not get), the government employees derided the bonus because it was "too small." President Macapagal-Arroyo had initially announced that the government can afford to give only a P1,000 bonus for each state employee. The beneficiaries made fun of it. And the President, who suffers from an acute feeling of being unloved and is deathly afraid of being unpopular, immediately raised the amount to P3,000 apiece. Not unlike a sugar daddy eager to please his mistress. The President is buying popularity with bribes. But that's still not good enough to the leeches. They want P5,000 each because that's what they received last year.
Last year we didn't have the fiscal crisis. This year we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. This year, the salaries in many government offices are delayed, contractors are not getting paid, infrastructure projects have been halted-because of lack of funds. This year, the President is pushing Congress to pass a number of tax measures to squeeze more money out of the people. But the government employees, those with cushy jobs, security of tenure, fat allowances and sidelines, want more, more, more-not unlike the giant squeezing the goose for more golden eggs until it died.
Malacanang says the bonus will come from the "savings" of government offices. If they have savings, that can only mean that their appropriations were more than enough and that Congress should now reduce their budget to cut costs and give the taxpayers a break. And the savings should go back to the Treasury, instead of being spent. It is no secret that the departments bloat their budgets so that when Congress cuts them, more than enough would be left. It is also no secret that when the fiscal year draws to an end, state offices spend their remaining budgets on such useless and wasteful expenses as seminars in faraway places so that Congress will not cut their proposed budgets for the next year.
I would like to know where the President got the authority to spend P3.6 billion for a Valentine's Day bonus. The President and the government cannot spend any money unless it is appropriated by Congress. I combed last year's General Appropriations Act and I could not find any allotment for a "Valentine's Day bonus." We, the taxpayers, cannot let this pass unchallenged. Today it is a Valentine's Day bonus, tomorrow it could be an All Saints' Day bonus, or a Holy Week bonus, or even a birthday bonus for each and every state employee. The possibilities are endless-for as long as congressmen have the imagination to invent names for the appropriations, in the same way that they have invented various names for the pork barrel.
Already, the President is brazen enough to spend government funds not authorized by congressional appropriation. The Constitution is clear: "No money shall be paid out of the Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation by law" [Article VI, Section 29(1)]. But there is no appropriation for a Valentine's Day bonus.
This is a culpable violation of the Constitution (Article XI, Section 2), for which the President can be impeached.
But, of course, President Macapagal-Arroyo is used to violating the Constitution and not being made to account for it. Sen. Nene Pimentel Jr. enumerated some of these in his speech before the Philconsa last Feb. 8, Constitution Day, for which reason he called for her impeachment.
"During the last presidential election," Pimentel said, "the President illegally used the trust funds raised through the Road Users' Tax and of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) for her own purposes. P1.4 billion of the Road Users' Tax was transferred to fund her partisan political project Kalsada Natin, Alagaan Natin." She also transferred P4 billion of OWWA funds to PhilHealth supposedly "to enable the poor to have access to public health services."
"While the objectives might have been good, it was still wrong for the President to have done so," Pimentel said, considering that the OWWA and Road Users' funds are trust funds that cannot be used for any purpose other than that specified in the law that created them.
Worse, the obvious reason for these illegal disbursements was to buy votes.
Pimentel also charged the President with illegally authorizing the payment-without congressional authority-of some $68 million, or P3.762 billion, for the purchase of six search-and-rescue vessels. Now she is going to violate the Constitution again with the Valentine's Day bonus.
* * *
Don't forget, make your valentine happy tonight by taking her to the after-dinner concert at the Front Page on T.M. Kalaw Street, in the Tourist Belt in Manila. Nonoy Zu?iga, Eugene Villaluz, Girl Valencia, Marri Nallos, and Juan Rodrigo, plus other surprise guests, will serenade you with love songs.
Best of all, admission is free, especially for journalists and Samahang Plaridel members.
Posted 11:19pm (Mla time) Feb 13, 2005
By Neal Cruz
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 14, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
FILIPINOS are in near-rebellion over the increases in taxes and government fees, most particularly, in the value-added tax. The government's excuse for the increase is the budget deficit and the foreign debt. The government needs funds to pay for them. Where else to source them but from the taxpayers?
But at the same time that the Arroyo government is squeezing the taxpayers, it throws away P3.6 billion in a so-called Valentine's Day bonus to the 1.2 million government employees. How much of hard-earned money will each worker have to part to fund the P3.6 billion?
The unkindest cut of all is that the money is going to a particularly ungrateful bunch of leeches. Instead of being grateful for the bonus (which private employees will not get), the government employees derided the bonus because it was "too small." President Macapagal-Arroyo had initially announced that the government can afford to give only a P1,000 bonus for each state employee. The beneficiaries made fun of it. And the President, who suffers from an acute feeling of being unloved and is deathly afraid of being unpopular, immediately raised the amount to P3,000 apiece. Not unlike a sugar daddy eager to please his mistress. The President is buying popularity with bribes. But that's still not good enough to the leeches. They want P5,000 each because that's what they received last year.
Last year we didn't have the fiscal crisis. This year we are scraping the bottom of the barrel. This year, the salaries in many government offices are delayed, contractors are not getting paid, infrastructure projects have been halted-because of lack of funds. This year, the President is pushing Congress to pass a number of tax measures to squeeze more money out of the people. But the government employees, those with cushy jobs, security of tenure, fat allowances and sidelines, want more, more, more-not unlike the giant squeezing the goose for more golden eggs until it died.
Malacanang says the bonus will come from the "savings" of government offices. If they have savings, that can only mean that their appropriations were more than enough and that Congress should now reduce their budget to cut costs and give the taxpayers a break. And the savings should go back to the Treasury, instead of being spent. It is no secret that the departments bloat their budgets so that when Congress cuts them, more than enough would be left. It is also no secret that when the fiscal year draws to an end, state offices spend their remaining budgets on such useless and wasteful expenses as seminars in faraway places so that Congress will not cut their proposed budgets for the next year.
I would like to know where the President got the authority to spend P3.6 billion for a Valentine's Day bonus. The President and the government cannot spend any money unless it is appropriated by Congress. I combed last year's General Appropriations Act and I could not find any allotment for a "Valentine's Day bonus." We, the taxpayers, cannot let this pass unchallenged. Today it is a Valentine's Day bonus, tomorrow it could be an All Saints' Day bonus, or a Holy Week bonus, or even a birthday bonus for each and every state employee. The possibilities are endless-for as long as congressmen have the imagination to invent names for the appropriations, in the same way that they have invented various names for the pork barrel.
Already, the President is brazen enough to spend government funds not authorized by congressional appropriation. The Constitution is clear: "No money shall be paid out of the Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation by law" [Article VI, Section 29(1)]. But there is no appropriation for a Valentine's Day bonus.
This is a culpable violation of the Constitution (Article XI, Section 2), for which the President can be impeached.
But, of course, President Macapagal-Arroyo is used to violating the Constitution and not being made to account for it. Sen. Nene Pimentel Jr. enumerated some of these in his speech before the Philconsa last Feb. 8, Constitution Day, for which reason he called for her impeachment.
"During the last presidential election," Pimentel said, "the President illegally used the trust funds raised through the Road Users' Tax and of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) for her own purposes. P1.4 billion of the Road Users' Tax was transferred to fund her partisan political project Kalsada Natin, Alagaan Natin." She also transferred P4 billion of OWWA funds to PhilHealth supposedly "to enable the poor to have access to public health services."
"While the objectives might have been good, it was still wrong for the President to have done so," Pimentel said, considering that the OWWA and Road Users' funds are trust funds that cannot be used for any purpose other than that specified in the law that created them.
Worse, the obvious reason for these illegal disbursements was to buy votes.
Pimentel also charged the President with illegally authorizing the payment-without congressional authority-of some $68 million, or P3.762 billion, for the purchase of six search-and-rescue vessels. Now she is going to violate the Constitution again with the Valentine's Day bonus.
* * *
Don't forget, make your valentine happy tonight by taking her to the after-dinner concert at the Front Page on T.M. Kalaw Street, in the Tourist Belt in Manila. Nonoy Zu?iga, Eugene Villaluz, Girl Valencia, Marri Nallos, and Juan Rodrigo, plus other surprise guests, will serenade you with love songs.
Best of all, admission is free, especially for journalists and Samahang Plaridel members.
posted by Dante at 12:00 AM
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