Filipinos will pay an additional P50 billion a year because of the P600 billion in combined budget deficit that the Arroyo Administration will have incurred in 2009 and 2010, Senator Mar Roxas said this week.
This is proof that Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her henchmen are robbing the government bank-rupt to force the next administration to resort to drastic revenue-generating measures to keep the economy afloat, Roxas said.
According to Sen. Roxas, the budget deficit is the result of the profligate spending and borrowing binge the Arroyo administration engaged in as early as two years before its term ends in June 2010.
"Our situation now is that our debt is increasing, the government is in a spending spree, but those who benefit only are the politicians sitting in Malacañang," Roxas pointed out. "The government coffer is nearly empty. With a huge debt and this government spending extravagantly, the next administration will not have the funds to finance its programs," he added.
Government’s budget deficit rose to a whooping P300 billion last year and economic managers have projected another "humongous" P300 billion deficit for this year. Interest payments for a P600 billion borrowing to fund the deficit is estimated to at least P50 billion.
"We have exceeded our deficit, which means government has again failed to meet its revenue targets. All taxes to be collected by the BIR and the BOC would now go to debt payments," Roxas said.
The Visayan senator said with government bleeding financially, the next administration could be forced to impose new taxes or collect higher taxes to finance its spending, to the detriment of the interests of the public.
"We cannot rely on this government to do the right thing. Doing right is now in our hands and we can all do this by choosing the upright leaders who will change the rotten system. We in the Liberal Party will continue to guard how government spends its money," Roxas said.
Arroyo Fails Governance Test
On the other hand, Sen. Chiz Escudero this week said President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo failed the governance test anew by splurging close to 500 million pesos on infrastructure projects alone in the 2nd district of Pampanga where she will run virtually unopposed for the Lower House.
"The expenditures were driven by purely political consideration for her candidacy. Governance is about allocating scarce resources. She clearly did not govern in this instance," he said.
"I do not begrudge those who benefited from this self-serving act. But these allocations show how the politics of patronage has become a norm in the past nine years," Escudero said.
The Bicolano lawmaker issued the statement following the disclosure made by Akbayan Representative Risa Hontiveros that Arroyo spent P459 million for roads, drainage canals and municipal buildings in the district where her son, Rep. Mikee Arroyo, is the incumbent congressman.
Hontiveros said that the amount spent by Arroyo is nine times the infrastructure allocation granted to each congressman.
"This negative example makes it imperative for the next administration to take the necessary steps to prevent fiscal abuses of this nature by future presidents," said the 40-year old senator, whose own pork barrel allocations have been withheld since 2005 after figuring in the impeachment moves against Arroyo.
Escudero filed a resolution last year urging the Senate committee on Finance to propose the repeal or amendment of Presidential Decree No. 1177 and Book VI of Executive Order No. 292 "with the end in view of reverting to Congress the power of the purse as prescribed by the Constitution." /MP
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