The Makati Business Club has urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to issue an executive order covering the rules and mechanisms for the disbursement of state financial aid and limiting confidential funds to promote transparency and accountability in the national budget, especially it still having billions of pesos in unprogrammed allocations.
Marcos Jr. vetoed P92.5 billion worth of unprogrammed appropriations in this year’s budget, but still retained P150.9 billion in unprogrammed allocations.
The MBC has warned that unprogrammed allocations could be subject to discretionary disbursement.
“The President has promised that politicians will not be allowed to intervene in the allocation of ayuda funds, but more than a verbal reassurance, we are requesting an EO to create rights-based and rules-based mechanisms to govern the disbursement of ayuda funds and to strictly limit confidential and intelligence funds to legitimate security issues,” the group said.
At Monday’s budget signing ceremony, the president said the government will prohibit politicians from taking part in the distribution of any financial aid, as it wants to ensure that the support reaches the intended beneficiaries without patronage.
Despite safeguards, including making funds only available after clearly defined tests are triggered and careful validation, the MBC said these are untested, making the implementation phase critical. It emphasized the need for more transparency and pushed for full public access to the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System data set for complete scrutiny.
Transparency is the cornerstone of governance and given the corruption scandal hounding the country, it should be a goal for the Marcos administration if it wants to earn back the broken trust of the Filipino people. Unprogrammed allocations are by nature vague and difficult to track, providing billions of opportunities for continued graft and corruption. Without the proper safeguards in place, it would be as if we had never learned any lessons from the deeply rooted and widespread corruption that has been recently uncovered.
The president should take the lead in putting all the necessary protections in place. An executive order can serve as a band aid while legislators come up with a permanent solution. If nothing is done, the corrupt will simply find ways to continue bleeding the country dry.*
