Posts tagged with Batasan

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August 28, 2010

Initial observations of the 2011 Aquino budget

President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III (photo from www.gov.ph)

The Aquino Administration submitted its budget proposal for 2011 to Congress this week. It is through the budget where one can see the priorities of the government, in how much it intends to spend on various programs of government. For 2011, the government under the Aquino administration intends to spend P1.645 trillion.

In his budget message, the President claimed that the spending proposal of the government for next year is anchored on “reform”. The budget claims to have a “bias to the poor and the vulnerable”. However, right at the onset, it is still oriented towards severe austerity, masked with the euphemism “fiscal responsibility,” a government spending orientation that has been the standard policy for decades. It is a policy intended not to simply ensure that the “meager resources” of the government are spent wisely for the people, to ensure that the government is able to pay its foreign and local creditors its monstrous, anomalous and scandalous debt.

Just to show you how scandalous and hypocritical the government’s budget orientation is, the Aquino Administration proposes to pay foreign creditors and financial institutions a whopping P823.27 billion next year (P357.09 billion in interest payments, P466.18 billion in principal amortization not formally included in the P1.645 trillion total budget). According to the initial budget analysis and report of IBON Foundation, the increase in interest payments alone “is the largest absolute increase in interest payments in the country’s history and, at a 29.2% increase from the year before, is the second largest percentage increase after the 32.6% growth in 2000.”

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January 15, 2010

The Danger with the Cybercrime Prevention Act

In a press release by the House of Representatives leadership, Speaker Prospero Nograles revealed that the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2009 (H.B. 6974) is up for third reading approval, meaning there would be no more deliberations nor debates over the bill and all Congress needs to do is to grant it its vote of approval. In other words, it’s as good as having been passed in the House.

Although we recognize the need for legislation that will protect individuals and institutions from malicious attacks through electronic means, it must not be addressed by a law that sweeps broadly to cover a myriad of electronic devices and many other legitimate electronic activities exercised by ordinary citizens. H.B. 6974 unfortunately, does not provide clear-cut definitions to “electronic devices” nor to “cybercrimes”. By deliberately providing a vague and catch-all definition of such devices and activities, government institutions and agents mandated to execute the Cybercrime Prevention Act, in case it is implemented, are dangerously empowered to intrude into the privacy of individuals, interfere with ordinary and harmless electronic activities and suppress legitimate forms of expression through electronic means.

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December 10, 2009

Sowing the seeds of a nationwide declaration

The way the Arroyo administration is stretching the meaning of “rebellion” is utterly absurd. If this is allowed, we’re making possible a bizarre scenario where the Arroyo administration may connive with its many warlord allies across the country to stage any “massing of arms” in order to justify a nationwide declaration of martial law as they near the day they are booted out of office in the 2010 elections. A few days ago, the Defense Secretary came up with an odd press release revealing something we’ve known all along anyway–that there are private armies all over the country. Suddenly, the government claims Ampatuan supporters have arrived in Manila. Then arms and a grenade are discovered near the NBI in Manila. They’re clearly beginning to sow the seeds of justifying a nationwide declaration. All they need is to stage another shocking performance.

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October 10, 2009

Abusing the people’s tragedy

For a while now, I’ve been at loss as to what to blog. Scenes of devastation and the actual loss of life and property to millions of Filipinos was overwhelming. It didn’t feel right blogging about anything else where almost everything else will pale in gravity. Class guilt perhaps, the very fact that I am able to blog in convenience indicates that, unlike majority of Filipinos who are poor, I am “unaffected.” For a while, blogging in the time of crisis reeked of insensitivity. Some people say blogging and online social media networks played a crucial role in the relief and rescue operations. I agree. But then again, the people who need the relief aren’t online, and prolonged online “involvement” seemed to me like a convenient excuse not to immerse with the people and get dirty with the actual operations. Posting and re-posting relief and rescue operations has to translate into actual relief and rescue operations. Many times, especially during the immediate days after the typhoons, they do, as proven by the thousands who flocked to organized relief operations. With an inept and inutile government, private citizens and civilian organizations needed to fill the vacuum in social services. But for how long? Especially when all those volunteers go back to their schools and to their workplaces?

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October 2, 2009

A temporary relief for state universities & colleges

Last Wednesday, the sub-committee hearing the budget of state universities and colleges (SUC’s) unanimously committed to restore the budget to its 2009 level. It means to say that the proposed P3 billion budget cut by the President and the Department of Budget & Management is rejected at the sub-committee level, and the budget for the country’s 110 SUC’s would be back to around P24 billion.

Kabataan Rep. Mong Palatino remarked that this is imperative, as the proposed budget has barely any allocation for SUC’s capital outlay. How then can SUC’s affected by the recent calamities rebuild their schools?

A few days earlier, the DBM released a statement defending the budget cut in response to several protests launched by the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP). They claimed that the proposed P21 billion budget is sufficient to sustain the services of SUC’s, as they are anyway allowed to generate their own income. What they didn’t say is that this forced income generating policy is done at the expense of students, through tuition and other fee increases. The statement only proves that our analysis as correct, that budget cuts and tuition increases are state policies that harm the future of the youth and the nation.

The motion to restore the P24 billion budget drew cheers from the attending university officials and employees. One state university president, however, remarked that though he was elated by the motion of the congressmen, he feared that it may be another disappointment. Apparently, congressmen, the politicians that they are, have for the past years committed to similar promises of budget increases, only to disappoint SUC’s once the General Appropriations Act is passed. Hopefully, the attending congressmen stay true to their word and maintain the P24 billion commitment–insufficient as it is, is better than the P21 billion budget proposed by the Executive.

It must be stressed, however, that this relief is temporary, as though the sub-committee approved the increase, the same must also be approved by the Committee on Appropriations and the House of Representatives in plenary session. It also has to get the approval of the Senate. Needless to say, it is too soon to be glad about the development.

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Tulong Kabataan‘s relief effort for the victims of tropical storm Ondoy is still ongoing! You may drop off your donations at any of the donation centers in schools across the Metro. You may also donate via Paypal. Or you may go to our headquarters at 118-B Scout Rallos St., Quezon City for volunteer work. The HQ is near GMA Network’s main offices along Timog Avenue.

With your help, Tulong Kabataan was able to hold soup kitchens in some communities a few days ago. Yesterday, we joined Makabayan’s clean-up effort at Tumana, Marikina. Hand in hand, volunteers helped the residents fill up two garbage trucks of debris. Today, there will be a medical mission in Malate. This weekend, if the weather permits, we will push through with the centralization of all relief goods collected from the donation centers and do repacking and distribution to several affected communities.

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