We beg to differ.
The Blue Ribbon Committee hearing yesterday on the anomalous flood control projects didn’t offer much in terms of entertainment value. Erwin Tulfo insisting that the Department of Budget Management (DBM) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) should have a say in how projects are allocated only exhibited his ignorance of the budget…
To the Duterte detractors, former President Rodrigo Duterte (PRRD) was left with a budget surplus by his predecessor, the late former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, that only exists in their collective imagination. Libre naman managinip ng dilat as part of their myth making. The truth is, public sector budgets are meant to be spent….
Read More “The 2025 ‘election budget’ now foundation for unprecedented corruption” »
The brouhaha at the Department of Budget Management (DBM) caused by Senator Bong Go’s protégé Christopher Lao, former Undersecretary at the Presidential Management Staff–Office of the Special Assistant to the President, has brought to fore the issue of how political patronage and the bureaucracy contribute to the culture of corruption in government. It’s not wise…
Where is the substance in the drivel Ka Tonyo Cruz writes? Numbers he cited in his Manila Bulletin piece “P10,000 aid for all is needed — and possible” comes from none other than his comrade IBON Foundation Executive Director Sonny Africa. That biased “source” makes everything he writes suspect from the very beginning. Predictably he…
Probably unknown to many, Senator Panfilo Lacson filed Senate Bill No. 23 last July 2, 2019. The Budget Reform Advocacy for Village Empowerment (BRAVE) seeks to empower local government units throughout the country down to the barangay level by allocating development funds which cannot be impounded by the national government. In a speech delivered on…
This ongoing word war over the 2019 national budget seems to have gotten out of hand and by the looks of it, it is no longer the House of Representatives but Malacanang that holds the power of the purse. At least, that’s what I am getting from reading the tirades spilled by the “PR” and…
Read More “Is Panelo Now Diokno’s Spokesman or Is Diokno Now The President?” »
Lately I’ve been seeing these posts thanking the president for increasing our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by something like 120 billion USD. It upsets me because it betrays a piss poor understanding of economics. I’ll give you two reasons why this thinking is wrong — because two is more than enough. First and foremost, the…
Read More “Don’t thank PNoy: Economic growth does not necessarily mean good governance!” »
Supporters of Philippine President Benigno Simeon Aquino insist that he is the “greatest” President the country has ever had. Now that his term is about to end, they worry about who can continue his so-called “reforms” after he leaves office. However, the fact that they are worried about who the next President will be already…
Read More “Noynoy Aquino is the worst president the Philippines ever had” »