Rizal Philippines
February 16, 2016
Many candidates, especially for the top positions are fond of OPM. Using other peoples money or better UGM (Using Govt Money) or Using Taxpayer Money (UTM) to get what they want ie to get elected. Is it bribery.
How can they can bribe?
1. Higher salary (the employer shoulders the cost) The labor sector will vote for the candidate, naturally
2. Higher IRA share (as one of the very busy Pres candidate has been peddling to the LGU - mayors and barangay head UTM
Will PDAF/pork stop? From PCIJ
More pork-like funds
Aside from an unprecedented gift of pork to Binay, Aquino and Budget Secretary Abad have also introduced additional pork-like lump-sum funds in the national budget, beginning 2011, the first Aquino administration budget.
In the General Appropriations Act for 2013, according to University of the Philippines Professor and former national treasurer Leonor Magtolis Briones, about P317.5 billion in special purpose funds or SPFs and P117.5 billion in unprogrammed funds had been proposed. Nearly all had been approved in the enacted budget.
Because these are “not as detailed and specific as the budget proposals of regular agencies,” Briones had warned that these “are vulnerable to reductions, transfers, and ‘adjustments’” since these are lump-sum funds.
The biggest tickets are the Budgetary Support to Government Corporations for P44.1 billion, Special Financial Assistance to Local Government Units (LGUs) of P17.5 billion, Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund of Ph70 billion, Retirement Benefits Fund, P70 billion, and Priority Social and Economic Projects (PSEP) Fund for P22.4 billion.
The amounts are even net of the 40 percent of national taxes that are automatically appropriated to LGUs as their IRA shares. The Philippines has 80 provinces, 143 cities, 1,493 municipalities, and 42,028 barangays. In 2011, their composite IRA reached P286.9 billion. This dipped to P273.3 billion in 2012, but soared again to P302.3 billion in 2013.
Aside from these direct transfers to LGUs is the massive Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program that the Aquino government has revved up multiple-fold in the last two years. From only P21.2 billion in 2011, the CCT budget coursed through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has more than doubled: P44.3 billion in 2013.
Meanwhile, the P17.5-billion Special Financial Assistance to LGUs includes P15.8 billion in “Special Shares of Local Government Units in the Proceeds of National Taxes,” the P1.5 billion budget of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, P200 million in “Local Government Support Fund,” and P50 million in “Barangay Officials Death Benefits Fund.”
The P22.4-billion PSEP Fund is a new expense item in the 2013 budget. It kicks in as a new pork-like fund that has been split among certain departments for such programs as “Health Facilities Enhancement” (P13.5 billion), “Public-Private Sector Strategic Support Fund” (P1.5 billion), and “Various Programs/Projects of LGUs” (P1.7 billion), and “Support for the Bottom-Up Budgeting Process (Empowerment Fund, P250 million),” among others.
Or Roxas promised the P100 million? Manila Times
Our candidates are imaginative creative and enterprising. We salute them
As early as now, a couple can be disqualified for campaignin very early and beyond the budget allocation. Who spent for their campaign? UGM
Of course the winner is the one who has a better strategy of mobilizing resources Whether crooked, legal or illegal who cares? May the best man/woman win?!!
