THINK TANK WARNS OF GOV’T SHUTDOWN UNLESS BUDGET IS DEMOCRATIZED

Both Malacanang and Congress should allow the budget process to be democratized to prevent the nation from being further divided leading to a U.S.-style government shutdown.

The Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) thus urged this today on the heels of an imminent impeachment complaint against President Aquino III and speculations of a secret collaboration between influential members of Congress and Malacanang to ram through the pork barrel scheme in the 2015 national budget by subterfuge.

Prof. Bobby M. Tuazon, Director for Policy Studies of CenPEG, said it’s about time that the taxpayers through their representatives had a decisive role in the whole budget system all the way from drafting, filing, deliberations, consolidation, and implementation.

“Every year, hundreds of billions of pesos of taxpayers’ money go to the pockets of incorrigibly corrupt politicians and their private cohorts in the guise of PDAF and DAP,” Tuazon said. “But the high court’s rulings on the unconstitutionality of these legitimized schemes to steal the people’s money in the hypocritical guise of ‘good faith,’ ‘development’ and ‘public interest’ will not end transactional politics and corruption unless the budget process is democratized once and for all.”

In theory, the CenPEG policy director said, the SC ruling will result in the President monopolizing the power of the purse and the Congress budget role merely ceremonial. However, he said, “Most members of Congress will not allow this sitting down and will resort to every conceivable means to have a slice of the big cake. Transactional politics did not die with the SC ruling.”

The plunderous system of kickbacks and commissions will be retained in “recommended” pet projects on the pretext of “social services,” “scholarship,” and “disaster mitigation” that will be funded discreetly under - and implemented by - the organic line agencies of the executive department. The architecture of corruption in the line agencies all the way from the DBM, the various departments, bidding process, LGUs, and private contractors  and even in constitutional bodies –known in the corruption vocabulary as “mafias” - is still intact and remains vulnerable to political influence as the latest pork scams show, Tuazon said.

Other ways by which public money can be stolen again, he said, are supplementary budgets submitted by the President to Congress – known as “supplementary pork barrel” – as well as donations from corporations and other influential private pressure groups lobbying for specific bills. Still in the hands of the President are humungous pork barrel funds such as Malampaya (P131 billion), social fund, special purpose fund (P449), and the like.

This sneaky pork barrel collaboration between the President and Congress is all the more inevitable with the 2016 presidential election coming up. To retain the seat of power, the President and his anointed successor must secure the electoral support of the ruling coalition by a generous package of funds, perks, and privileges. On the other hand, reelectionists need the pork to retain their voting turfs by a semblance of performance through “pet projects” as well as to bankroll their campaign including vote buying and - in the automated system – software buying, Tuazon said.

Budget democratization where citizens’ watch groups exercise power to have a say in the crafting of the General Appropriations Act is one radical step that should be adopted to minimize if not entirely eliminate public suspicions regarding the use of taxpayers’ money, the CenPEG policy analyst said. It does not need any legislation, Tuazon said, since all that has to be done is for the administration and policy makers to follow the constitutional doctrine of government-civil society partnership in governance. At the same time, the President’s discretionary powers in the budget should be done away with or overhauled against executive abuse.

Transparency and accountability however dysfunctional or vague this system in the country now is not enough. The people’s direct participation must prevail, Tuazon added.

“With public confidence in government lost because of the pork barrel scams and plunder cases over the years,” he said, “the only way by which the institutional damage can be undone is to allow this constitutional doctrine given teeth all throughout the budget system including public auditing – for that matter, in all public affairs.”

This governance principle should be replicated at the provincial, municipal/city, and barangay levels, Tuazon added. The public interest-driven budget democratization is long overdue, he said.

In Brazil, Canada, India, and other countries participative budgeting is institutionalized thus avoiding the logjams, gridlocks, and other crippling effects of a non-democratic, graft-vulnerable process. Public services have improved in these countries where citizens exercise the real power to define budget priorities through government-stakeholders meetings, public assemblies, and other mechanisms.

Unless participatory budgeting is done here, he said, various citizens’ initiatives from impeachment to the public enactment of laws will spike – which is now unfolding today as a last recourse. Meantime, the non-resolution of national issues that have sparked public indignation will be divisive resulting in a constitutional crisis and a U.S.-style government shutdown, Tuazon observed.

“With government shutdown, you can never predict what will happen next,” he added. “Another civil disobedience or, this time, a taxpayers’ revolt?”

Government shutdown is possible if politicians from both the executive and legislative departments are locked in endless bargaining on the allocation of pork-driven projects or when the general appropriations is clearly opposed to the public interest compelling the civil society movement to shoot down its enactment by paralyzing mass protests.

In the U.S. government services have been paralyzed a number of times. In the latest shutdown early this year, President Obama and the Republicans were in an acrimonious showdown over health care allocations and other controversies forcing several public services to close for several weeks, Tuazon said.

Tuazon clarified however that the democratization of the budget system is not enough in achieving breakthroughs in the struggle against corruption and patronage politics. Parallel citizens’ actions should still be done elsewhere such as the final enactment of the decades-old Freedom of Information (FOI) and the dismantling of political dynasties, among other vital public interest measures.