The Philippine Online Chronicles

When I got an invite for the bloggers meet with TG Guingona III, I was like, “who is this guy?” The only thing that entered my mind was, he is probably a relative of Teofisto Guingona. But why is he running for senator?

When I saw him, I said to myself that ahhhh. I’ve seen him on Television. Still, the question remained. Who is he? He’s not popular. How can he win the election?

I asked him that and he said that’s why he is joining his party’s rallies as he doesn’t have sufficient funds to advertise himself.

Teofisto “TG” Guingona III is with Noynoy’s campaign. He is joining all the activities of the Liberal Party. They share the same advocacies. TG’s main advocacy however is Budget Reform.

As representative of the 2nd district of Bukidnon, Congressman TG Guingona III has filed several bills/resolutions on budget reform which are still pending with the committee on Appropriations.

How is our budget done anyway?

To explain in simple terms, the budget is first proposed by the president (executive). The Congress (legislature) will review the proposal and authorize it. It is congress that will say where the money goes. It is their most important law that they will pass in the year. When approved by Congress, the president will implement it.

Do you honestly think that the budget allocation is being followed? Your guess is as good as mine.

Here are some more facts about our current process:

According to TG, Appropriation is funds approved by Congress. This fund will be released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for use by government agencies.

Whenever funds are not released or not used for the allotted project or purpose, it will be called savings.

For example, if we have PHP100 allocated to make Project A, but for any reason, that money is not spent, then it will become savings.

Impoundment

if we don’t release funds, it’s called impoundment.

TG gave a concrete example. This happened to University of the Philippines. Profession Joselito Florendo, OIC-VP for Finance for UP said, "...we were shocked when we were informed that we had 1.3 Billion in savings. For the record, we have no savings in that amount..."

How is this possible? According to Congressman Guigona that money never reached the University of the Philippines. Yet, it was reported as savings for UP. The term for this is called, "impoundment".

Automatic Re-enactment

How does re-enactment budget work? In 2008, for whatever reason, Congress fails to pass a budget for that year, then by law, the budget of 2007 becomes the budget of 2008. This is called re-enactment. Why is there such a law? Because it is important that the government continues to function.

Why should this law be changed when it sounds good?

For example, in 2007 if we have an allocation for Project B and was completed in the same year. In 2008 the budget was re-enacted, meaning the budget for 2007 was just copied to be the budget for 2008, then the same Project B will have an allocation. Since Project B is already completed, then the money allocated for it will become savings. Now what happens is (since this money is in savings), the president could re-allocate this money.

You have to see the video I took during the blogger’s meet. It’s worth your time, really.

Adobe Flash Player not installed or older than 9.0.115!

The rest of the videos can be found here. I strongly suggest you watch all of them. I was truly enlightened with this and I believe every Filipino should know how our budget works and where our money goes.

The example below is a good reason why we need to do budget reform.

Here is a table showed to us by TG Guingona III regarding the Fertilizer scam last 2004.

In 2004, the Philippines had a re-enacted budget. There was Php 3.8B continuing appropriation. Congressman Guingona III said that Mr. Bolante got Php 1.8B from the available budget.

According to TG Guingona III, the Php 1.8B was requested & released in 1 week. Who could order the release of that huge amount of money in less than a week?

“Magaling ang ATM card nya.” TG Guingona III said.

That comment was hilarious! Seriously, this is a big problem that our country has. How can we prevent government officials from abusing their power and using our hard-earned money for their own good?

This is what TG Guingona III is fighting for. The use of government funds must be transparent, accountable & participative.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites