Sunday, October 18, 2020

House bloc: Budget not free of pork. Inquirer Newsletter. October 19, 2020

SOUL FOOD Cook Pascual "Jun’’ Puno and two volunteers prepare ingredients for cauldrons of hearty, hot meals cooked inside the waiting area of the San Isidro Labrador Church in Barangay Pinyahan, Quezon City, for delivery to the homes of hundreds of poor residents on months-long lockdown, in memory of Dr. Salvacion Gatchalian, an active parishioner who died of COVID-19. LYN RILLON

Regions

6,000 workers lose jobs in Western Visayas

ILOILO CITY—Community quarantines and other concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic continue to take its toll on employment in Western Visayas, with more than 6,000 workers losing their jobs since March. —INQ

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Board Talk

No more buts, give more women a seat at the tech high table

It’s no secret that women are still quite at a disadvantage, even in these modern times and despite their capabilities. After all these years, women are still fighting for gender equality in the workplace. —Story by Anna Znamenskaya

News

Active COVID-19 cases dip below 40,000

The Philippines’ active COVID-19 cases fell to 39,808 as the Department of Health (DOH) reported on Sunday the “mass recovery” of 14,941 patients with mild or no symptoms. —Story by Dona Z. Pazzibugan

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House bloc: Budget not free of pork

The House Makabayan bloc slammed on Saturday the claim of Speaker Lord Allan Velasco that the P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 is free of “pork.”

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro said the P16.4 billion worth of development projects to barangays under the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) remains in the proposed budget passed by the House of Representatives on Friday night.

“The P16.44 NTF-Elcac budget for the barangay development program was not clearly defined, which is essentially a pork barrel. The Speaker said there is no pork, but I believe this is a pork barrel because it is a lump sum [appropriation] and it is up to the discretion of Duterte’s generals,” Castro said at a virtual press briefing. Another Makabayan lawmaker questioned the multibillion-peso appropriation given to the NTF-Elcac while the country is under a pandemic. “There is a 19.1-billion budget for the NTF-Elcac while many Filipinos are dying from hunger due to the pandemic. It [government] prioritized funding a nonline agency, the NTF-Elcac, which is just a coordinating body,” Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas said in the same briefing.

'Pork insertions'

Under the proposed 2021 general appropriations bill, the NTF-Elcac has a P19-billion proposed budget for 2021, P16 billion of which was earmarked for its barangay development program.

National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, the NTF-Elcac vice chair, earlier said 822 remote barangays would each get P20 million from the fund allocated in the 2021 budget of the task force.

Contrary to the claim of Velasco that "there is no pork" and "this is a constitutional budget based on the decision of the Supreme Court, Brosas said the 2021 national budget is “riddled with anomalies and pork insertions.” --INQ

Editorial

Far from doomsday, but...

A positive note observed by the BSP is that remittances for the whole year would be far from the doomsday scenario painted last June when the government projected a minimum decline of 20 percent. BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said that while overseas Filipinos would be sending home fewer dollars this year, the final figure would still not be the worst that government planners were earlier expecting.

Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net