Ombudsman Samuel Martires said on Monday, September 14, that the budget department’s non-release of non-pandemic allocations to the constitutional bodies amounted to an act of graft.

“I would have filed a case against the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) Secretary or any of the personnel involved in the budget of Commission on Audit (COA), involved in not releasing the P173 million. I will file a case against them under Section 31 of RA 3019, which is undue injury,” Martires said on Monday during the Senate’s deliberations on the 2021 budgets of COA and the Office of the Ombudsman.

Martires was referring to DBM National Budget Circular Number 580 released last April, in which the budget department said it would no longer release 35% of the appropriations in the government’s P4.1-trillion 2020 budget.

This was due to belt-tightening measures brought about by the pandemic, so that those deemed to be non-essential to the coronavirus response would be withheld.

Part of the withheld appropriation was P173 million worth of funds for the COA’s program, activity or project (PAPs) item. COA is a constitutional body. The appropriation was supposed to be for personnel services, capital outlay and Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE).

Fiscal autonomy

Constitutional bodies like COA, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the judiciary enjoy fiscal autonomy. For a constitutional commission like COA, Section 5, Article 9 of the Constitution guarantees that “their approved annual appropriations shall be automatically and regularly released.”

On the interpellation of Senator Panfilo Lacson, COA Chairman Michael Aguinaldo said what DBM did was “a violation of fiscal autonomy under the Constitution.”

But Aguinaldo said the COA has “given up” the appropriation.

“More or less parang ginive up na namin, considering the difficulties the government was having with funding in view of the pandemic. Parang binigay na rin namin, di na namin sila inano on it,” said Aguinaldo.

(More or less it’s like we have given this up, considering the difficulties the government was having with funding in view of the pandemic. We just gave it to them, we no longer hammered them on it.)

But Martires said this would result in further abuse if no one files a case.

“Nobody would just dare file a case against the DBM secretary or any of its staff, but I think it’s about time to teach these people a lesson, not simply because they’re close to the Gods they are also acting like Gods,” said Martires.

The Ombudsman said the DBM gravely abused its discretion, and by depriving COA of its appropriation, its act also resulted in undue injury to the people that COA serves. Undue injury is an element of graft.

Warning

Lacson agreed that while Aguinaldo appears to be taking the cut generously, “let this not serve as a precedent for future issuances by DBM.”

“Otherwise  they will just be like the proverbial fly who thought he himself was the carabao when he was just on top of the carabao, I think we should put a stop on this to avoid any abuse in the future,” said Martires.

Minority Leader Senator Franklin Drilon pointed out that if a case is filed, it would be Martires who would decide the complaint. Nobody elaborated further.

The Office of the Ombudsman, which also enjoys fiscal autonomy, also complained that their DBM-approved budget for 2021, P3.36 billion, is lower than their current P4.1-billion 2020 budget.

Assistant Ombudsman Weomark Layson pointed out that this also violates fiscal autonomy. Under the Constitution and the Ombudsman Law, fiscal autonomy also entails that appropriations may not be reduced from the previous year.

“It would entail P742 million to bring to P4.1 billion the budget level to conform to the pronouncement of the Constitution and its enabling law, RA 6770 (Ombudsman Law), on fiscal autonomy,” said Layson.

“Emergency or no emergency, this cannot be a precedent,” said Lacson. – Rappler.com