Enrile hits majority’s committee changes

MANILA, Philippines – Are all oversight committees created equal?

Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile revealed that his group voted against the Senate leadership’s reforms on oversight committees during a caucus last Monday.  

In an interview on Wednesday, August 7, Enrile said the 6-member minority bloc opposed the decision of the majority to give each oversight committee a budget of P20 million.

Senate President Franklin Drilon and Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto have said that the Senate decided to reduce the number of oversight committees from 35 to 20, and give an equal budget for all panels. They said this is aimed at generating savings ranging from P50 million to P140 million in 2013. 

Yet Enrile said that he prefers that the Senate just abolish all oversight committees.

“The function of the oversight committees can be performed by the [regular] committees. So I suggested we should call a spade a spade and instead we should review the need for these committees,” Enrile said.

Separate from the 39 regular committees, oversight panels monitor the implementation of specific laws. Senators have said that many of them duplicate the work of the regular committees and are outdated. Oversight committees are created by law or resolution.

READ: P500M a year: Will Senate slash bloated committees? 

Senators like Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III have called to equalize the budget of oversight committees, saying this will reduce “internal squabbling.” Budgets of the oversight committees currently range from P5 million to P36 million.

Yet Enrile said the majority’s decision to give equal budgets to the panels was questionable.

“They are not the same in importance. There are oversight committees that are created by law…. By doing a uniform amount, you are saying they have equal importance, that the responsibility and work of all oversight committees are the same.”

Enrile also said the decision was problematic because now, committees with budgets of P36 million will have their funding lowered to P20 million while those with a budget lower than P20 million will have to get bigger funding.

The former Senate President also said the Senate cannot act on its own in changing oversight committees.

“How can you reduce their budget unilaterally? As far as I know, you can’t do that because we have counterparts in the House. That’s why we did not vote for this,” Enrile said.

Besides Enrile, the other members of the minority are Senators Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Jinggoy Estrada, Gregorio Honasan II, Nancy Binay and JV Ejercito. They are mostly members of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

‘Significant, substantial savings’

The majority though explained that the changes will result to a lower Senate budget following controversies like Enrile’s unequal distribution of maintenance and other operating expenses, and the multi-million peso pork barrel scam.

Recto has said that the savings will be returned to the national treasury. “Clearly we can see significant, substantial savings.”

He explained that there will only be 20 committees to ensure that each senator has one oversight panel. The 4 officers of the Senate – Drilon, Recto, Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano and Enrile – are ex-officio members of all committees.

“This is a continuing thing. When we discuss the budget for 2014, more reforms will come,” Recto said on Tuesday. 

Aside from rationalizing oversight committees, the Senate leadership said it is looking into the liquidation system to ensure the efficient and proper use of Senate funds. – Rappler.com