Drilon warns: 2022 nat'l budget can be used to fuel presidential ambitions

Amid concerns that it would be used for presidential election in 2022, Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon asked the help of the Filipino people to guard the 2022 national budget and vowed to shave the excess fat in the final budget of the Duterte administration.

"I must put a warning: everyone should watch out because next year is an election year," Drilon said Thursday.

"The most important piece of legislation in the coming Congress is the budget. The budget is a major instrument for the recovery of our economy. Therefore, next year will be very critical in terms of the budget, because, first, 2022 is an election year, and, second, next year is critical for our economic recovery," Drilon stressed.

"We have to make sure the money collected from the taxes are spent properly and not for election purposes," he added.

The Senate chief fiscalizer appealed to economic managers not to let those who will try to use the budget to fuel their political ambitions.

"I hope that our economic managers will not get influenced by political whims that will dictate on the allocation of very limited resources next year," he said.

Aside from being an election year, Drilon underscored that 2022 will be critical for the country's recovery from the effects of the pandemic.

"We have a very limited resource. Putting the resources in the right places is critical in our recovery from the pandemic. We need resources because of the pandemic. The economy suffered. A lot are unemployed. A lot are hungry. Our economy shrunk. All of these are because of the mismanagement of COVID-19 pandemic," Drilon reiterated. Drilon said the people must watch out for excess fats in the budget, citing, for instance, the allocation for the anti-insurgency campaign which he previously tagged as "Malacanang's pork barrel."

Drilon had earlier warned that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) would propose an increase in their budget next year, and vowed to oppose it "tooth and nail."

"This is the kind of excess fat that can be cut. We must shave the excess fat in the budget and devote it to resources that are needed like funding the ayuda or social amelioration program," he said.

To me, the anti-insurgency fund is totally unnecessary. Pork barrel lang iyon. We can devote it to 4Ps or the ayuda which is totally unfunded," he added.