Nation’s eyes on Congress: Media should help!

WITHOUT MUCH public attention, Congress railroaded a pork-laden budget, but media held back questions both on the speed of approval and dubious cuts and allocations.

Voting 257-6 with no abstentions, the House quickly approved the PHP4.1 trillion proposed national budget on September 20. Congress gutted the budget of frontline agencies that provide basic services to the poor, and raised President Rodrigo Duterte’s intelligence funds. “Intelligence” can serve the same purpose of “pork.” The president does not have to account for the whopping PHP4.5 billion he has received. As an Inquirer editorial put it, this amount was “close enough to fund the Department of Health’s (DOH) nationwide health facilities program.”

The DOH budget was slashed by PHP16.6 billion. The budgets of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Department of Education (DepEd) were also cut by PHP11.65 billion and PHP252.24 billion, respectively. Adding insult to injury, the lawmakers rewarded themselves with PHP100 million worth of “pork” allocations each and a PHP1.6 billion increase for the additional deputy speakers and vice chairpersons.  These new positions are clearly a political accommodation of the different factions that emerged from the Speakership row.

Media had followed the budget process, starting with the committee hearings in August and the plenary debates in September. But most reports did not seem to notice the odious features of the budget when it was passed by the House, as well as the speed with which representatives voted to approve – noting these only when some politicians pointed these out as glaringly self-serving.

Earlier headlines failed to flag the obvious, waiting for Sen. Panfilo Lacson to make his critical comments three whole days after the passing of the budget law.

CMFR monitored reports from the three leading Manila broadsheets (Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer and The Philippine Star); the primetime newscasts (ABS-CBN 2’s TV Patrol, CNN Philippines’ News Night, GMA-7’s 24 Oras and TV5’s Aksyon); as well as selected online news sites from September 9 to 23, 2019.

Fast-tracked by Malacañang

Duterte certified the proposed bill as urgent on September 17. House approval came after second and third readings, all in all a mere ten days after the House began its deliberations in plenary. The Inquirer and the Bulletin quoted lawmakers who criticized the House’s failure to thoroughly debate on the budget which experienced reporters could have placed in context by pointing out that most budget hearings take months. The budget after all determines how the government can provide public services — or not — for the incoming year.

GMA 7’s 24 Oras singled out another irregularity in the process – the addition of PHP1.6 billion for more deputy speakers which now number 22. The report noted that there were no deputy speakers in the past, only one speaker pro tempore. But the number rose drastically to 14 under the 17th Congress in 2018. The report presented a clip of Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers Party-list) who said she did not believe deputy speakers were necessary and were elected only for “political accommodation,” arguing that the House has functioned before without such officers.

CMFR noted how some reports including ABS-CBN’s TV Patrol and ANC’s Early Edition looked into the impact of budget cuts on affected sectors.

But given the shameless misappropriations, CMFR deplores the failure of the media to provide context that would render the obvious outrage in the news accounts. All these would be based on facts. Calculations would show what percentage of the national budget is controlled only and solely by Duterte and how his allocations compare with line agencies like health and education.

Cuts on Basic Needs: Education and Health

CMFR cheers the exceptional series of TV Patrol reports which exposed how deeply the budgets for education at all levels have been cut, raising questions of how effectively basic education and K-12 curriculum can be provided by the current allocations.

In three consecutive days, the series which started on September 9 presented the effect of the cuts: its impact on the voucher program which involves both public and private high schools, cuts on programs like the free college tuition, and finally the limited budget for the construction of classrooms which received a mere 12 percent of what DepEd had proposed.

Despite the “string of epidemics” ravaging the country, the House also mercilessly slashed the health department’s budget.

ANC’s Early Edition interviewed former health chief Rep. Janette Garin (1st Dist., Iloilo), laying out how the 71 percent cut in its human resources budget would affect immunization since experts and skilled personnel are needed to administer vaccinations. The outbreak of dengue and measles and the resurgence of polio have been attributed to low vaccine coverage. Garin earlier said the DOH budget was cut by PHP10 billion, but upon further inspection, she said it was actually PHP16.6 billion.

Press no longer an effective watchdog

With the cacophony of voices, mostly favoring Duterte, the few watchdogs in the press are no match to government propaganda. In this age, some solidarity among journalists is needed to amplify the news that alert citizens to the failings of government.

The administration’s decision to cut back on education and health and to increase the president’s intelligence funds instead speaks volumes about government priorities. The budget for 2020 is a collusion between executive and his legislature to waste taxpayers’ money and deprive masses of Filipinos of basic services. The budget after all is drafted by the executive department, and submits this to Congress. How can the media fail to ask the crucial questions? Is this the budget that the president certified as urgent? If so, why the huge intelligence fund when there are existing agencies supposed to provide this function? Why so many deputy speakers, and why such huge allowances for superfluous positions? Alas, given this kind of coverage, it should be pointed out that the press as “watchdog” has lost both its bark and bite. The muzzling of the media seems complete. Let the people who still care know that they are very much on their own.