Allowing government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) to return their unused funds to the Treasury is a matter of fiscal discipline, a House leader said Wednesday.
House Deputy Majority Leader Jude Acidre of Tingog party-list made the position in connection with the 2024 National Budget Law provision allowing the return of GOCCs’ unused funds to the National Treasury so the government can fund items under unprogrammed appropriations, a provision whose legality has since been questioned before the Supreme Court.
“It’s a very effective way of instituting fiscal discipline. If we continue to let all these subsidies left unchecked, we will end up only… the likely scenario is we’re only going to keep on funding inefficiency,” House Deputy Majority Leader Jude Acidre of Tingog party-list said in a press conference.
“If they cannot use their budget efficiently and it’s [amount unused] occupying a big chunk of the national budget…I would say I trust our economic managers. They have a better appreciation of what needs to be done in that respect,” Acidre added.
Acidre did not drop names but Finance Secretary Ralph Recto justified the return of GOCCs’ unused funds to National Treasury, saying that “kung may sobra, gamitin natin sa pagpopondo ng unprogrammed fund ng budget. Sa dami ng pangangailangan ng 115 million Filipinos, mula sa kalusugan, sa edukasyon, sa imprastraktura, sa agrikultura, kailangan nagagamit natin nang maayos ang pondo ng taxpayer o pondo ng pamahalaan.”
(If there is a surplus, let’s use it to fund unprogrammed budget needs. With the many demands of the 115 million Filipinos—healthcare, education, infrastructure, agriculture—we need to ensure that taxpayer funds and government resources are used effectively.)
The Office of the Solicitor General has since defended the policy, saying that under the 2024 National Budget Law and supplemented by Department of Finance Circular 003-2024, it is legal and does not violate the people’s right to health.
‘Pet projects’
In a separate statement, House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers party-list lawmaker France Castro said the policy could siphon off funds meant for critical public services and redirect them to pet projects without proper legislative oversight.
“[The provision on] unprogrammed appropriations [in the budget] allow the executive branch to reallocate funds from GOCCs like PhilHealth, GSIS, and SSS to various projects at the President’s discretion. This mechanism [of transferring unused GOCC funds] allows the administration to siphon off funds meant for critical public services and redirect them to pet projects without proper legislative oversight,” Castro said.
“It’s a blatant attempt to circumvent budgetary processes and concentrate fiscal power in the hands of the executive. We must not allow the people’s money, especially funds intended for health insurance and social security, to be used as the President’s personal pork barrel (discretionary funds),” she added. — BM, GMA Integrated News