Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 17) —The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Wednesday said the additional ₱12 billion budget of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is not intended specifically for the proposed charter change.
“It is not for the purpose of Charter Change but may be used for various activities of the COMELEC such as the preparation of national and local elections, overseas absentee voting, continuing registration, recall, special elections, referenda, and other initiatives,” DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said in a statement.
She said the Comelec has the discretion to use the budget inserted by the bicameral conference committee of Congress for a plebiscite if the government decides to pursue any change, or if the people’s initiative pushes through.
Speaking to CNN Philippines’ Newsroom Ngayon on Wednesday, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said they requested the budget last year without the intention to use it for activities related to charter change..
“As far as the people are concerned, wala po kaming hinihingi na people-people initiative na ganyan dahil wala pa namang ganyan alingasngas noon,” he said.
[Translation: We did not request the budget for the people’s initiative because we were not thinking about that matter before.]
Garcia also said Comelec does not have the power to realign the budget. However, he noted that technically, the commission can use the funds for the people’s initiative.
“Technically, kapag tinanong niyo po kami, eh puwede ba namin gamitin yan sa people’s initiative, technically yes po, meron talagang pagkukuhanan. Kaya lang po iba po yung nasa isip namin hindi naman po yan ang aming dahilan kung bakit kami nag-request dati at ‘di naman namin in-expect na bibigyan kami ng ganyan amount,” he explained.
[Translation: Technically, if you ask us if we could use the budget for the People’s Initiative, technically yes, we can. However, the budget was not intended for that, we were not thinking of appropriating the money for that before and we were also not expecting that they would give that amount to us.]
He noted that the DBM earlier allocated a P2-billion budget for the Comelec in the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP), which is P17.4 billion less than the commission’s initial proposal of P19.4 billion.
RELATED:
Comelec: Additional ₱13B in 2024 budget can be used for possible Cha-cha plebiscite
