PNOY TO CERTIFY SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET AS URGENT, SAYS DRILON

MANILA-President Benigno S. Aquino III will certify as urgent the passage of a P14.6-billion supplemental budget for 2013 to buttress government capacity to assist and rehabilitate calamity-stricken areas, Senate President Franklin M. Drilon said today.  

Drilon met with Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte yesterday to discuss the proposed supplemental budget, where Abad assured the two leaders that the President is supportive of the proposed legislation and will certify it as urgent.  

"We are working on a very tight timetable as the current General Appropriations Act is going to expire by the end of the year and as there are only five weeks left in our legislative calendar. The certification by the President will ensure the immediate passage of this bill," emphasized Drilon.  

According to the Senate chief, they had agreed to the "absolute vitality" of the supplemental budget to authorize the executive to spend additional P14.6 billion for fiscal year 2013 for massive relief and rehabilitation efforts for the victims of various calamities that hit the country during the second semester.  

Drilon also explained that the Congress can already start working on the proposed measure since the Bureau of Treasury, through National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon, has already issued a certification dated November 21 asserting the availability of funds that can be tapped for the proposed supplemental budget.  

The funds will be sourced from the unspent Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations for 2013, which was recently declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, noted Drilon.  

"Everything is in order now for the immediate passage of this supplemental budget. Hopefully, it can be passed as early as possible, since the victims of these calamities urgently need the augmented support of the government for rehabilitation," stressed Drilon.   

"Who will ultimately benefit from our urgent actions would be those who were left homeless, hungry and in despair by the calamities. We need to help them right now," he added. 

The P14.6-billion additional funds will be used  mostly to rehabilitate and repair various infrastructure that were destroyed by the past disasters - including super typhoon Yolanda that wrought havoc in Central Visayas particularly Leyte, the typhoons Santi and Labuyo that hit Luzon, the siege in Zamboanga City, and as well as the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the Bohol and Cebu provinces.  

The proposed measure will also be used to provide assistance to families whose homes and livelihood were destroyed by calamities, particularly super typhoon Yolanda. 

ASEAN donates $45,000 to help restore Philippine cultural heritage

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN–The Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed Wednesday to donate $45,000 to help the Philippines restore cultural heritage sites in the central Visayas that have been damaged in last month’s earthquake and Typhoon Haiyan two weeks ago.  

 

The unanimous agreement to support the restoration work with financial resources from the ASEAN Cultural Fund came during the Forty-Eighth Meeting of the ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information.

 

The Philippines was requested to draw up an inventory of damaged cultural sites next month.

 

The meeting of the Committee opened earlier Wednesday with delegates observing a minute’s silence for the victims of the typhoon, which has claimed thousands of lives since devastating the Central Visayas region two weeks ago.

 

Among the buildings damaged in Typhoon Haiyanwas the Leyte Provincial Capitol building, a neoclassical edifice that briefly served as the seat of the Philippine government at the end of the Second World War.

Senate to guard 2014 budget against unconstitutional provisions-Drilon

MANILA-Senate President Franklin M. Drilon assured today that all provisions in the 2014 General Appropriations Bill will be closely scrutinized to ensure that they are consistent with the latest decision of the Supreme Court on the unconstitutionality of the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

“I will see to it that all provisions in the 2014 national budget that are inconsistent with the Supreme Court decision are stricken down,” said Drilon.

The proposed P2.268-trillion national budget is currently being heard in the Senate plenary.

For instance, Drilon cited special provision 2 of the budget of the Department of Education where a consultation with the representative of the legislative district concerned should be held prior to the implementation of its school building program.

Drilon likewise identified a special provision relating to the use, allocation and release of LGU shares in the excise tax of locally manufactured virginia type-cigarettes which contains a similar provision  “in consultation with the representatives of the congressional districts of the province,” a phrase that may not be in conformity with the SC ruling.

Such provisions, according to the Senate chief, may be construed as legislators’ post enactment participation in the budget execution, which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional.

“The constitution empowers the Congress to craft and approve and appropriate public funds, but the matter of execution of the budget is within the power of the executive,” said Drilon.

He added: “the identification and recommendation of projects and programs must be performed by legislators during the budget enactment period. After the budget is passed, the congressmen and senators’ participation should be limited to their oversight functions.” 

‘PDAF scrapping could displace 150,000 scholars’

MANILA-Malacanang should immediately adopt the  “tens of thousands” of college scholars  orphaned by  the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the Priority Development Assistance Fund as unconstitutional ,  Sen. Ralph Recto said today.

Recto said a mechanism should be put in  place to ensure that there will be no disruption in the schooling of students whose tuition  and other school fees  are bankrolled  by  the funding scheme  ordered void  by  a 14-0  High Court vote.

The Palace, Recto said, can begin with a “comfort statement” that  “no student will be left behind” as PDAF exits from the budget menu.

“This can be done through a presidential directive to state universities and colleges (SUCs) to continue accepting PDAF-supported students. That should be the first step,” he said.

Next, according to Recto, is to create a funding mechanism for college scholarships which will be compliant with the Supreme Court decision.

“For the 2014 requirements, what Congress can do is augment the individual budget of the 114 SUCs, to include an expanded scholarship program that will not only address the tuition of PDAF-supported students but new entrants as well,” he said.

This, he said, is already addressed by Sen. Francis Escudero’s “commendable” proposed amendment in the 2014 budget, which seeks to funnel P2.5 billion for scholarship slots in all SUCs.

The 114 SUCs have a proposed combined budget of P36.8 billion for 2014, up from this year’s 34.9 billion.

In administering the scholarship fund, Recto said the SUCs must be completely autonomous in selecting scholars, using admission standards  they will themselves prescribe.

“This is not about retaining pork. This is about retaining students in school, “ Recto said.

Without a safety net for PDAF-funded college students, at least  “150,000 college students” are in danger of losing their scholarship, Recto warned.

This number, he said, is bigger than the 118,819 people displaced by the Moro rebel siege of   Zamboanga City last August.

The number could even be higher, Recto said,  “as there are estimates placing the number of PDAF-funded scholarship slots at 400,000.”

If true, this forms a sizeable chunk of the estimated 1.2 million students enrolled in 114 SUCs, Recto noted.

This, however, does not include enrollees in 56 technical-vocational schools run by TESDA, most of which offer tertiary courses, he added.

“If we don’t fill the void, we are creating a new class of displaced people,”Recto said. 

Legarda, UN Ask: How Safe Is your School?

MANILA-Senator Loren Legarda and the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) led by Ms. Margareta Wahlstrom, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for DRR, today encouraged schoolchildren, teachers and communities to assess the safety of their schools with the launch of the international program, “How Safe Is Your School?”

“Through this program, we invite citizens to participate in the process of making schools disaster-resilient with the initial step of assessing the safety of schools in their communities not only in terms of ensuring the structural integrity of the buildings but also in making sure that students and school staff are prepared in the event a natural hazard occurs,” said Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change and UN Champion for DRR and Climate Change Adaptation for Asia-Pacific.

“Among the most vulnerable to disasters are children. It is estimated that 66.5 million children are affected annually by disasters. It is therefore important to make our communities, including our schools, disaster-resilient to keep our children out of harm’s way,” she stressed.

She added that regular earthquake and emergency drills must be conducted in schools and their administrators and personnel should know the proper response and actions to take when natural hazards occur.

Legarda noted that the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Bohol damaged at least 85 schools in Regions VI and VII; while Typhoon Yolanda caused damage to school infrastructure worth P174 Million.

The Senator also recalled that in 2006, the landslide in Barangay Guinsaugon, St. Bernard, Southern Leyte killed more than 1,000 people, including 246 elementary schoolchildren.

She added that in the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, 10,000 schools collapsed killing 17,000 children; while in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake in China, 7,000 schools collapsed killing an estimated 10,000 children.

“If our schools are not structurally sound, a single strong temblor could kill hundreds of children studying inside their classrooms, unaware of the disaster that would fall upon them. This makes this initiative all the more important,” she said.

“Building the resilience to disasters of the education sector is a worthy investment. It brings the double benefit of saving lives and achieving our development goals. I therefore enjoin everyone to assess the safety of our schools and let us work together towards the resilience of our children’s second homes,” Legarda concluded.

Drilon asks Napocor to speed-up oil spill cleanup

MANILA-Senate President Franklin M. Drilon said today that cleanup and containment efforts of the oil spill in Estancia, Iloilo are expected to go full-scale within 48 hours, the deadline imposed by the Power Sector Assets and Liability Management (PSALM) to a private company contracted to remove the remaining fuel oil in the tanks to prevent further spillage.

“I was informed by the National Power Corp. that they had already contracted yesterday Kuan Yu Global Technologies Inc. through the Power Sector Assets and Liability Management (PSALM), for the full-scale cleanup operations in Estancia,” said Drilon.

“The condition set by PSALM is for the winning bidder to mobilize within 48 hours after the award of contract. Given that, we expect that the clean-up operations will be intensified in the coming days,” he added.

With the manpower and equipment for the full scale clean-up operations expected to arrive by Friday tomorrow, Drilon took the time to thank the efforts of the Napocor, the Philippine Coast Guard oil spill response personnel, and local residents, who have been already busy trying to contain the oil spill’s damage.   

“The P87-million contract will enable them to siphon and transfer the remaining fuel oil from the ship, as well as towing and refloating of the stranded barge, oil spill containment and clean up of the waste oil and debris, and full clean up of the affected shoreline areas, “ Drilon added.

Drilon previously asked the Napocor to assume full responsibility for the event, and to fast-track the oil spill cleanup, right after his personal visit to Iloilo last week.

Power Barge 103 (PB103), owned by PSALM and operated by National Power Corp. (Napocor), was swept aground near the coastal town by strong winds and rising storm surge of super typhoon “Yolanda” on November 8.

That barge was already sold to a company, but not yet awarded. “They are passing the buck on who should pay for the expenses to make sure that the oil spill is solved. So, I told Napocor just to do it because we cannot let these legal squabbles stop solving this problem,” said Drilon.

“They can deal with the other issues surrounding the oil spill later. Right now they need to act with the most urgency, since the oil spill poses a serious health and environmental hazard to the areas affected,” pointed out Drilon.

Drilon said that the continued presence of the oil spill in Estancia threatens the town’s well being and livelihood.

“Thirty families had to be mandatorily evacuated since they were closest to the spill site – including children, the elderly, nursing mothers and those with ailments- while the remaining residents have to wear masks. These people are suffering,” he said.

  

Lastly, the Senate President said that even with the concerted efforts for the oil spill cleanup already taking shape, he will continue to closely monitor the situation.

As Yolanda batters a third of country’s rice production Recto pushes for special insurance for rice, corn farmers

MANILA-As agricultural damages continue to mount due to the recent onslaught of super typhoon Yolanda, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto pushed for the immediate passage of a bill establishing a special insurance program for rice and corn farmers heavily hit by calamities.

“This piece of legislation aims to aid our rice and corn farmers in times of severe calamity. Right now, typhoon Yolanda alone had been estimated to have wiped out a third of the country’s rice-growing areas. We need to act fast if we are to arrest this very sudden decline in rice production,” Recto explained.

No less than the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has called for urgent assistance to Filipino farmers because of the damage dealt not only by Yolanda, but that of typhoon Santi that ravaged farmlands in northern Luzon in October.

“If we want to avoid entire regions of the country having to rely on food aid, we need to act now to help vulnerable families to plant or replant by late December,” the FAO said in its most recent statement, saying it estimates Yolanda to have caused crop losses worth $110 million and inflicted damage to the agriculture sector of more than twice that figure.

This is why Recto is calling for the immediate passage of Senate Bill 714 entitled, “Special Rice and Corn Insurance Program of 2013,” which establishes a special insurance program that will enable rice and corn farmers cultivating land with a maximum area of five (5) hectares to replant as soon as weather and soil condition permits.

“The devastation caused by Yolanda should be addressed on all fronts. While we plan for the rehabilitation and recovery of all those affected by the typhoon, we should also ensure the least disruption in crop production, ensuring food security and farm incomes,” he said.

“The FAO is right when it expressed urgency in aiding our farmers. Instead of having them rely on food aid from relief operations for a longer period of time, they should instead be assisted in tending to the damages caused to their farmlands.”

Under the bill, the premium for the insurance shall be fully-paid for by the State through the Special Rice and Corn Insurance Program to be undertaken by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Agrarian Reform through the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation.

Recto also urged Malacanang to certify the bill as urgent, saying that the peculiar climate of the Philippines increases the vulnerabilities in agriculture that consequently expand the mandates of government agencies.

“We may be facing more Yolandas in the future. The need to institutionalize a system to aid our farmers get back on their feet in the soonest possible time becomes even more apparent,” he explained.

“If agricultural production continues to bear most of the damage every time a typhoon passes our country, then we may be facing a food crisis sooner than we expect if we don’t extend assistance to our farmers.”

Recto added that aside from rice and corn, he is also open to the inclusion of other crops in his proposed insurance system.

Aside from extreme weather conditions, diseases and pest infestations similarly lead to crop losses.

“In order to recover from these damages and to plant anew, farmers need assistance through access to agriculture extension services and immediate capital infusion to acquire needed inputs,” Recto stated.

The measure also attempts to address the seeming helplessness rice and corn farmers feel when calamities such as the recent typhoon damage hundreds of millions of pesos of croplands. 

Salazar denies concealing Ombudsman’s dismissal order vs UPRIIS employee, vows to answer graft raps

Photo shows DA Undersecretary Antonio Fleta (3rd from right), Former NIA Administrator Antonio Nangel (2nd from left) handing over a P1-million check as prize to GBM IA chairman Arturo Villa (3rd from left), vice-chairman Felix Venancio Melegrito (2nd from right), UPRIIS Manager Josephine Salazar (left) and Cabanatuan City Mayor Julius Ceasar Vergara. (DA File Photo).

CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija-The operations manager of the National Irrigation Administration’s  Upper Pampanga River Integrated Irrigation Systems yesterday denied allegations that she did not serve the dismissal order of the Office of the Ombudsman against an agency employee which was implemented four years ago as she vowed to answer the graft charges filed against her by two anti-graft foundations.

          Salazar said the graft charges are unfounded and without any legal basis, adding  this would nevertheless afford her the opportunity to air her side on the controversy.

”I am innocent of the charges levelled against me and I am confident that once the issues have been properly ventilated, that the Office of the Ombudsman will dismiss them for lack of merit,” she said in a press statement.

          She issued the statement even as the Bantay-Bayan Foundation and the NGO Empowerment Foundation filed a graft case before the Ombudsman for allegedly failing to serve the anti-graft order dismissing Melanio Santos, senior water resources technician of Division 3 office of UPRIIS.

          Last May 6, director Ma. Luisa Salonga-Agamata of the Civil Service Commission’s public assistance information office wrote then-NIA administrator Antonio Nangel regarding an anonymous text complaint launched through its Contact Center ng Bayan against Salazar involving the case of Santos.

          Another anonymous text complaint claimed that another UPRIIS employee, German Maniego was dismissed by the Ombudsman whose order was implemented by Salazar, resulting in Maniego’s ouster.

          Published reports also linked Salazar to the supposed non-serving of the Ombudsman order against Santos.

Salazar lamented that the news reports accusing her of inaction in the case of Santos constitute trial by publicity, are intended to besmirch her name and worse of all, make a mockery of responsible journalism because her side was never sought by the reporter who filed the report.

“This is the height of irresponsible journalism if I ever saw one by some people who did not even give me the benefit of an answer by getting my side. The publication where the news reports came out has exhibited malice towards me and my person and threw balanced reporting out of the window,” she said.

          In her reply to Salonga-Agamata’s letter, Salazar stated that she assumed her post as operations manager of UPRIIS on October 27,2011. “”From the date of my assumption up to this writing, I have not received any communication or instruction from the Office of the Ombudsman regarding the dismissal order of Mr.  Santos,”she said.         

          In the case of Maniego, Salazar said the latter is an employee of the UPRIIS’Division 2 based in Talavera, Nueva Ecija who has never worked under her supervision.

          Ï am not yet designated as UPRIIS operations manager when the dismissal order was served to Mr. Maniego, hence there is no way that I had a hand in serving the order against him,” she said. (Manny Galvez)  

Jinggoy camp says De Lima’s move to cancel his passport is a violation of his constitutional rights

MANILA-In a letter addressed to Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada through his counsel Estelito Mendoza, says that the cancellation of his passport would “amount to a crippling impairment of [his] fundamental right to travel and egregious violation of fundamental right to liberty.”

 

The letter was in response to the request of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to the Department of Foreign Affairs for the expeditious cancellation of his passport last October 23.

 

The letter was received by the Central Records Division of the DFA on the same date November 14.

 

Sen. Estrada, through his counsel, opposes the cancellation of his passport as it is violative of his rights under the Constitution and international covenants, particularly Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which state that everyone has the right to leave and to return to his country.

 

Mendoza also slammed the remarks made by Sec. de Lima suggesting that Sen. Estrada would leave the country in order to evade arrest, detention and prosecution, and branded it as “utterly without foundation and terribly unkind.”

 

Mendoza asks that the DOJ’s request for the cancellation of passport of Sen. Estrada be “peremptorily rejected.”

 

He cited pertinent provisions of the Republic Act 8239 or the Philippine Passport Act of 1996 which enumerates the grounds for passport cancellation. To wit, Section 8 (b) provides the following: 1) When the holder is a fugitive from justice; 2) When the holder has been convicted of a criminal offense; 3) When the passport was acquired fraudulently or tampered with.

 

Mendoza also argues that the same law does not confer on the Secretary of Foreign Affairs the authority to cancel the passport of Estrada.

 

Section 4 of the Passport Act, he says, is not the law and may not be regarded as the law required by Section 6, Article III (Bill of Rights) of the Constitution to limit the right to travel in the interest of national security, public safety, or public health.

 

Mendoza adds that “it would be undue delegation of legislative power” to the DFA Secretary, and the power vested to him to cancel passports is limited to specific grounds provided under Section 8 of RA 8239.

 

Further, the Passport Act does not provide that the cancellation of passports of those who are accused of plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman is in the interest of national security.

 

Mendoza underscores that Sen. Estrada is not a fugitive from justice nor has been convicted of a criminal offense.

 

“No law has also been enacted prohibiting any person accused on plunder before the Office of the Ombudsman from leaving the country and obtaining a passport for that purpose or if one has been issued, for its cancellation,” he asserts.

 

Mendoza explains that before final judgment of conviction, not until the issuance of warrant of arrest by the Sandiganbayan upon determination of a probable cause may the right to travel of the accused be limited if the Sandiganbayan issues a hold departure order.

 

Any restraint of liberty, including right to travel, at any stage of criminal proceedings, not imposed by the Sandiganbayan is implicitly prohibited.

 

In essence, if granted, the request of Sec. de Lima for the cancellation of the passport of Sen. Estrada would inflict upon him punishment even before the Office of the Ombudsman finds adequate basis to conduct a preliminary investigation of the complaint of the National Bureau of Investigation.

P14.5-B supplemental budget filed in the Senate

MANILA-Senate President Franklin M. Drilon formally filed a bill that will authorize the executive to spend additional P14.5 billion for fiscal year 2013 and that will provide funds to repair various infrastructures, including P4 billion for school buildings, heavily damaged by recent calamities particularly super typhoon “Yolanda.”

The bill seeks to source the P14.5 Billion from the unspent Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocations for 2013, which was recently declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In filing Senate Bill No. 1938, the Senate chief emphasized the urgency to pass a supplemental budget to cover the costs of unforeseen expenses brought about by successive natural and man-made disasters that hit the country during the second semester.

“The damage caused by recent calamities requires intensified efforts for rehabilitation, repair and construction of severely damaged infrastructure, buildings and facilities in order to accelerate recovery,” said Drilon. “Our people urgently need the augmented support of the government for rehabilitation.”

With just five weeks left in the legislative session, Drilon pointed out the necessity for the Congress to expedite the passage of the bill as the current General Appropriations Act will expire by December 31.

As with the national budget, the supplemental budget is an appropriation measure which should originate, but Drilon said: “given the urgency of providing funds to the rehabilitation or reconstruction efforts, we in the Senate can already start consultations on the proposed supplemental budget, while waiting for the certification of the national treasurer as to the availability of funds and for the House to pass and transmit to the Senate its version of the measure.”   

In his proposed supplemental budget, P2.75 billion and P1.25 billion will go to the Department of Education and state universities and colleges, respectively, for the repair and rehabilitation of school and academic buildings.

Likewise, P3 billion is allotted for the Department of Public Works and Highways to repair roads, bridges and other government infrastructure and another P1.5 billion for the restoration of declared historical sites which were damaged specifically by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in the Visayas region.

The supplemental budget will also cover expenses for the repair of hospitals amounting P1 billion and purchase of hospital equipment amounting P500 million through the Department of Health. The National Housing Authority, on the other hand, will receive P1.5 billion for the purchase of relocation sites and construction of housing units.

Lastly, the supplemental budget will provide P1 billion to the Department of Transportation and Communications to repair airports and ports and P1 billion to the local government units to repair rural health centers and fund other rehabilitation programs.

Legarda: Phl Wins Seat in UNESCO World Heritage Committee

MANILA-Senator Loren Legarda today announced that the Philippines has won a seat in the UNESCO World Heritage Committee during elections held on November 19 in Paris, France.

Legarda said that according to UNESCO Permanent Delegate and Ambassador to France Cristina Ortega, there were 22 candidate countries that competed for 12 seats and the Philippines won with 116 votes, second only to Turkey.

“I congratulate our government and the Department of Foreign Affairs, especially our Philippine UNESCO team who have worked hard for this achievement,” said Legarda, who headed the Philippine Delegation to the 37^th UNESCO General Conference.

“Our nation has been devastated by disasters of great magnitude of late. It is unfortunate that several of our heritage structures, some of which are included in our World Heritage Tentative List, have been greatly damaged due to the 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Bohol. That is why we warmly welcome the news of our successful election to the World Heritage Committee. For a nation that is overflowing with rich culture and with natural and man-made wonders, this is certainly a great blessing,” she stressed.

According to the UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines, the World Heritage Committee is responsible for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance upon requests from States Parties. It also decides on properties to be inscribed on the World Heritage List, as well as those to be inscribed or deleted in the List of World Heritage in Danger.

The Philippines has five sites inscribed in the World Heritage List—the Baroque Churches of the Philippines (located in Manila, Santa Maria, Paoay and Miag-ao); the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park; the Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras; the Historic City of Vigan; and the Puerto Princesa Subterrenean River National Park.