Thread by @znsuzara

Sen Drilon said the Contingent Fund can be used to fund COVID interventions. Speaking of the Contingent Fund...

#DidYaKnow that President Duterte's Contingent Fund is 420% higher than the previous admin's? In 2016, the appropriation for it was only 2.5B. Now, it's 13B.

In the 2017 Budget, the Contingent Fund increased by Php3B or 120%. The following year, it increased by 136% more to Ph13B, the highest level that it has been in the past 3 years since President Duterte assumed office.

[3] Since the Contingent Fund appropriations increased in 2017, figures in the 2017-2019 National Expenditure Plan reveal a pattern of huge amounts of transfers to the DILG and DND, in particular, the PNP and the AFP.

[4] These transfers are over and above the respective appropriations of the two PNP and the AFP.

In 2016, the combined amounts of transfers to DILG and DND accounted for only 29% of the total appropriations for the Contingent Fund.

[5] Beginning in 2017, when the Contingent Fund was increased for the first time under President Duterte’s admin, the total transfers to DILG and DND amounting to Php8.1B even exceeded the Contingent Fund appropriation, which at that time was only at Php5.5B.

[6] That was made possible through a Php6.9B augmentation from the Pension and Gratuity Fund that year.

So was the BAHO Act really necessary to use saving and augmentation? No. Use of savings and augmentation was done WITHOUT a law granting emergency powers over the budget.

[7] In 2018, the transfers to DILG and DND accounted for over half (59%) of the Php13B Contingent Fund.

No data is yet available for the full transfers from the 2019 and 2020 Contingent Fund.

[8] Btw, the Contingent Fund is a Special Purpose Fund that may be used "to cover the funding requirements for new or URGENT projects and activities and activities of national government agencies and GOCCs that need to be implemented or paid during the year."

[10] COVID-19 crisis is an emergency, yes?

Since the lockdown,only DFA and DILG have so far received augmentations from the Contingent Fund.

Guess which agency under DILG got the biggest transfer from the Contingent Fund amounting to 533 million? check SARO-BMB-D-20-0005526

[11] How much of the 2019 and 2020 Contingent Fund have been used? If they haven't been fully utilized, what are those appropriations being reserved for?

We have every right to fear ATB, more so when they have loaded and reloaded with funds that is very much under the President's discretion.