“Why is she being babied instead of being punished? It appears that she is still well-connected with this administration,” Cayetano said.

He said Arroyo was allocated the huge amount despite being painted by the Aquino camp as enemy No. 1 in the May national elections.

Cayetano, who supported Sen. Manuel Villar in the presidential election, said the administration should practice what Mr. Aquino had preached during the campaign by adopting a “tuwid-na-daan” (straight-path) budget.

“I really cannot understand why GMA is still getting preferential treatment under this new administration? Why are they trying to equalize the budget among all congressmen when the best solution is to redistribute Arroyo’s P2.2-billion pork barrel to poorer provinces that deserve it,” he said.

While hearing the budget, the House of Representatives discovered that P2.2 billion was allocated for Arroyo’s district in the P90-billion proposed budget for 2011 of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

In contrast, five House members have zero allocation in their districts, while others have less than P50 million.

Narrowing gap

To partly close the gap, Malacañang and a House committee agreed to tap P1.2 billion in lump sums in the proposed DPWH budget to bring to at least P50 million the infrastructure fund for each congressional district.

The P50 million is on top of the P70 million in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), pork barrel allotted annually to members of the House. Senators are each entitled to P200 million in PDAF.

Party-list representatives are entitled to the PDAF, but not to the additional P50 million and to the road users’ tax, which are available to district lawmakers.

Unfair

Cayetano said the situation was unfair considering that Arroyo acted “vindictively” over the past five years by withholding the pork barrel releases of her critics in Congress.

He questioned Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson’s failure to include infrastructure funds in Arroyo’s district among the P3.2-billion worth of infrastructure projects that he discontinued and placed for rebidding.

“They should have moved to renegotiate these contracts and have them bid out like the other projects voided by Secretary Singson. Why is the former President being treated as an exception?” Cayetano asked.

Review budget system

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez said the bicameral committee should look into the distribution of infrastructure funds by region and by district in the P1.645-trillion proposed budget for next year, and rectify “inequities.”

He said a lot of money was being given to Luzon, especially Pampanga, referring to Arroyo’s home province.

After approving on second reading the proposed 2011 budget, the House is collating proposed amendments for its eventual approval on third reading. Once the House and the Senate approve the budget measure, they will convene the bicameral conference committee to reconcile their versions.

Open to realignment

House leaders did not rule out the possibility that the P2.2-billion allocation could be realigned, or even slashed at the bicameral committee.

“We should find out what it’s for. I think its benefits go beyond the district and maybe even beyond the province,” Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said by text in reply to a question.

But he added: “If it’s a political thing, certainly it should be reallocated, reduced or even deleted. And the bicam is the proper place as you said.”

Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, chair of the House appropriations committee, agreed.

“That’s very possible. It will boil down to the merits of the project,” he said when asked on the possibility of slashing the amount at the bicameral committee.

But he added: “The bulk is foreign-assisted projects. Politics shouldn’t get into it.”

Foreign-assisted

While she was still the President, Arroyo managed to raise the public works budget in Pampanga’s second district with foreign-assisted projects amounting to P2,220,526,000, according to Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello.

These will be funded by P564.359 million from the national budget, and P1.678 billion in loans from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation and the Korean Development and Cooperation Fund, he said.

Singson has authorized only P22 million public works funds for Pampanga in 2011, but the rest of the infrastructure funds worth P2.2 billion are loans contracted by the then President.

If the bulk of the P2.2 billion would be funded by foreign loans, the government has to comply with the conditions of the loan agreements, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad said.

“I understand from Secretary Singson that the P2.2 billion is a foreign-assisted project, and therefore covered by a loan agreement. In which case Congress cannot ignore the conditions of the loan,” he said by text message.

Singson echoed Abad’s position, saying that Congress can only realign the amount if it stopped the projects altogether.

“If those projects are stopped, the foreign funders will complain. I don’t think it’s correct to realign this. What’s important is to do this right,” he said.

Hazard-mapping project

Singson said these undertakings were part of a massive, multiphase project in Central Luzon initiated years ago to clear and clean up river systems that flow into Manila Bay, and it just so happened that these straddled Arroyo’s district.

The two major projects are the Pinatubo hazard-mapping project and the Korean-funded roads contracted as early as 2003, according to reports.

Deputy Majority Leader Romero Federico Quimbo, whose second district in Marikina City was allotted a measly P1 million in infrastructure funds for 2011, also backed the proposed review of the budgeting system.

“There should be a more careful [study] of the entire budgeting system. There should be fixed guidelines in terms of allocation,” he said by phone, noting that the differing allocations showed “lapses in the budget system.”

Ma. Elena Bautista-Horn, the spokesperson for Arroyo, said Congress couldn’t slash the P2.2 billion without risking penalties.

“It’s a foreign loan. Bicam can’t slash it. They can hold the (Philippine government) counterpart but we will be paying the interest just the same, plus the penalties for the delay,” she said in a text message.

Amid the dispute, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III filed Senate Bill No. 2185 which seeks to open to the public the bicameral meeting on the budget to ensure transparency.

Most of the horse-trading and last-minute insertions are made during the meeting of the bicameral committee.

Gil Cabacungan & TJ Burgonio, Phil. Daily Inquirer