By Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio, Reporter
CONGRESS needs to open to the public the deliberations on the 2025 budget to discourage insertions by legislators pursuing their own agenda, political analysts said.
Civil society groups should press legislators to publicize the deliberations of the bicameral conference committee reconciling the budget bills of both chambers, they added.
Discussions on the budget bill are expected to wrap up by mid-December.
“If the budget proceedings of both the House of Representatives and the Senate are open to the public, the bicameral conference committee should also be,” Maria Ela L. Atienza, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines, said via Viber. The bicam “should not be empowered to act as a third chamber of Congress.”
“The bicameral panel should not be given opportunities to exercise power and abuse authority,” she added.
The joint congressional panel has traditionally sought to harmonize their budget bills behind closed doors, leaving the public in the dark about late changes to the spending plan.
“The purpose of a bicameral committee is to simply make sure that the process of reconciling different versions of a bill is done speedily. If there are serious aspects of the bill that involve sensitive matters, they use that mechanism to discuss and resolve their differences on those matters,” Arjan P. Aguirre, who teaches political science at the Ateneo de Manila, said via Facebook Messenger.
The joint panel is susceptible to abuse because of the shroud of secrecy, he added. “Just like any institutional mechanisms and practices, this can be abused and misused for political gain.
“Bicameral conferences are often used for secret deals and negotiations involving public funds,” according to Mr. Aguirre.
Budget line items likely to be subject to insertions at bicam level include funding for flood control projects and financial aid programs under the Social Welfare, Health, and Labor departments, Zy-za Nadine M. Suzara, a budget analyst, said via Viber.
The bicameral conference for the 2024 budget bill resulted in an insertion allowing the National Government to raid the reserve funds of state-owned corporations. As a result, unprogrammed appropriations for 2024 — items included in the budget with no firm sources of funding — also more than doubled to P731.45 billion.
“The public should always take an active role on matters that are germane to public funds,” Gian Paolo S. Ines, the founding chairman of San Beda University’s Department of Political Science, said via Viber. “Necessarily, this includes participation in budget deliberations, implementation, monitoring, and the like.”
“Making the bicameral conference committee’s proceedings on the proposed national budget open to the public will definitely encourage transparency and accountability,” he added.