While the 1987 Philippine Constitution gives Congress the power of appropriations, provisions in Presidential Decree No. 1177 give the President discretion over certain appropriations such as  lump sum appropriations, the authority to suspend the release of funds, and use of savings in appropriations to cover deficits. These are powers sourced from this decree issued during the dictatorial rule of President Marcos and not sanctioned by the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

It is a decree that should ideally be rescinded and struck down by this administration in the interests of public transparency and accountability since it gives any president massive powers to switch around and manipulate funds regardless of any decisions or restrictions initially put on approved monies by the legislature.

Without commenting on who is charging what about whom in the AFP right now, it is not difficult to see how pabaon (send-off money) scandals can so easily happen. Blue Ribbon Committee hearings and politicians talk incessantly about slush funds - and they seem to feature in every high level case of alleged corruption: But as yet, we don’t seem to link the ubiquitous slush funds with the ubiquitous and hugely discretionary contingency and special purpose funds (and dare we say it again, the PDAF/Pork Barrel Allocations) which are written into national budgets and approved by legislative committees year after year.

Opinion is critical and freedom of expression an inalienable (natural) right. Too is the right to information and often we assume they are the same thing. Yet information is essentially data and fact. Unfortunately, too much reporting the world over is poorly rooted in fact and too heavily in opinion and hearsay. The sorry financial state of traditional media outlets is in part to blame.

The Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project held its fifth training on advanced transparency and anti-corruption reporting called “Numeracy for Journalists, Civil Society Organizations and Citizens” on April 26 at the Naomi’s Botanical Gardens in Ozamiz City.

The training is the second leg of the PPTRP training series in Ozamiz City. The first was held in October 2010, where members of media and civil society organizations were trained on basic laws on transparency and anti-corruption in the public sector and ways in monitoring and reporting corruption in their respective local governments. The recent training focused on understanding local government finance processes, and revisited key concepts and processes of investigative reporting.

A total of 60 participants attended the training – six were from CSOs; 14 were mass communication students of La Salle University accompanied by one faculty member; and 39 were local journalists from Misamis Occidental and Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur.

The training is set to enhance knowledge and capacities of the newly formed local transparency reporting group Misamis Occidental Public Transparency Collective (Mis Occ PTC), whose members were among the trainees. Formed last month, Mis Occ PTC aims to increase engage the local governments on their compliance with anti-corruption laws.

PPTRP lead trainer and NUJP secretary general Rowena Paraan said both media and CSOs have key roles in understanding, monitoring and reporting government budgets, especially the local budgets. How a certain administration plans, spends and reports the budgets to the public indicates whether it is biased for the people’s genuine development, she said.

Inquirer corresponded Ryan Rosauro, who had long covered the city and provincial governments discussed the local government budget process. He tackled the powers and limitations of local executives as well as the mechanisms where the public could take part in monitoring and scrutinizing the local budgets.

The training was an opportunity for local media practitioners to deepen their appreciation of the issues surrounding the recently released report of the Special Audit Investigation of the Commission on Audit on select financial transactions of the city government -- which were alleged to be anomalous. Participants pointed to the issue of information access, especially the hardship of acquiring a copy of the audit investigation report in order to set the record straight about its findings.

The participants raised the issue of “disconnect” between the development planning process and the budgeting process, thus making the annual executive budget a failure in terms of addressing local needs. CSO participants said that development plans are not usually translated into development investments as reflected in the annual budget.

CSO participants also pointed to the need to track the pattern in local government unit (LGU) borrowings that are often invested on projects which do not necessarily bring positive economic results. In the end, LGUs pay loans for projects which only failed to improve their constituents’ economic situation. And most of these projects, the CSO participants said, are tainted with corruption, such as alleged overpriced contract costs to build certain infrastructures.

Participants also raised the need for local legislative bodies to effectively scrutinize proposed budgets before approving an appropriation ordinance in order to lessen the chances of fraud in budget execution.

The Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP) held its fourth training on advanced transparency and anti-corruption reporting called “Numeracy for Journalists, Civil Society Organizations and Citizens” on April 2 in Cagayan de Oro City.

A total of 23 persons took part in the training. Of the 23 participants, four are female and 19 are male. All are from the media sector.

The training featured as resource person Mr. Nestor Lisondra, OIC-chief of the Project Development, Investment Programming and Budgeting Division of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Region 10.

Lisondra discussed how the Regional Development Council as the highest policy-making body in a region plans and executes the budget according to the economic and development efforts it has set for that specific region. The discussion highlighted the need for the RDC to make sure its budget priorities are consonant with those of the local government units to ensure meaningful development for the people. The inputs and discussion also helped the participants know the difference in the processes between budget planning of government line agencies and that of local governments.

The participants also discussed the powers and limitations of local government officials especially when it comes to budget administration, as well as the procurement process and the areas where corruption usually breeds.

“The budget of the local government, or in this case, the Regional Development Council, is a rich source of stories,” said Rowena Paraan, lead trainer for PPTRP and National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) secretary general. The government budget, she said, could and should be tool for governance, development. But oftentimes and in the absence of public scrutiny, the budget is used as a political tool and is where corruption usually exists, she said.

At the workshop, the participants identified corruption issues that are linked to the local budget administration. Among these were the arbitrary use of intelligence funds by the Misamis Oriental provincial government; unfinished projects such as the City Hospital, Bulua Drainage System and the Convention Center in Barangay Indahag in Cagayan De Oro City; and continued production and use of ads and billboards benefiting only certain politicians.

The participants said the training helped them understand more the local budget process and determine areas that need more scrutiny and reporting. They said they could use their now knowledge to further improve their reporting.

Money was not a problem during the past administration for the only government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) to oversee legalized gambling in the country – nor it seems was accountability: There just wasn’t any.

The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) operates 13 casinos and several VIP slot clubs in major cities around the country. It also exercises regulatory powers on more than 180 bingo parlors and e-games cafes nationwide.

It is among the largest contributors of revenue after the Tax Authority. PAGCOR was created in 1977 through Presidential Decree 1067-A.

While President Benigno Aquino III has vowed to implement key reforms and take a wholly different track from his predecessor, not all the policies of the Arroyo presidency have been abandoned.

One of the few things pursued by the previous administration which is set to continue and be intensified is the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) program.

Under this program, the government will tap the private sector to invest in public infrastructure projects. While private investors will be expected to abide by regulations that come along with operating public infrastructure projects, the government is expected to ensure the consistency of regulations and provide an environment suitable for both business and just for the end-users – namely the general public.

Without doubt, signing the 2011 budget into law before January 1 was a major achievement for the Aquino administration. As many news organizations have pointed out, it was the first time in 11 years the budget was passed in time. This does away with the need to implement a re-enacted budget which is effectively a license to misappropriate huge amounts of public funds if a government is so-minded. As we know, a re-enacted budget is when no new budget has been passed in time and thus the previous year’s budget is adopted again as the basis for the coming year’s spending – this despite the fact that substantial amounts will have been budgeted and used for infrastructure, capital costs and other one-off completed projects which will not be needed again. Re-enacted budgets also fail to reflect increased costs such as those related to inflation and possible rising government liabilities such as increasing pension costs and servicing a larger public debt. Such budgets result in endless accounting problems and subvert all efforts to ensure real transparency and accountability. In doing away with the need for a re-enacted budget – for this year at least – the Aquino government has secured a substantial victory and his team deserves full credit for it.