Rigor in budget process needed now more than ever

WITH its tag of P3 trillion being the biggest in our national history, and given national elections scheduled for next year, it is imperative that the 2016 budget proposal of President Benigno Aquino 3rd is subjected to the most thorough and rigorous review that Congress can muster.

Filipinos must have also learned about the many tricks that Budget Secretary Florencio Abad employs to distort, evade and manipulate the wishes of Congress in the annual General Appropriations Act, so that it has also become a matter of national interest and survival that this budget proposal is cleansed of pork, Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), discretionary allocations, and illegal outlays, like funding the creation of a substate, and the electioneering of public officials in next year’s balloting.