MANILA — A Philippine lawmaker on Sunday questioned the wide disparity in proposed funding for district engineering offices under next year's national budget, warning that the allocation gaps and billions of pesos in fresh infrastructure projects could perpetuate political patronage.

Party-list Rep. Antonio L. Tinio said the proposed budget assigns P4.79 billion to the first district engineering office of Ilocos Norte — the largest allocation among the country's 198 engineering offices — compared with just P40 million each for the two offices in Davao City. District engineering offices are the field units of the Department of Public Works and Highways, implementing road and other infrastructure projects within the legislative districts they cover.

"This shows that the pork barrel system as carrot-and-stick is very much alive and kicking," Mr. Tinio said in a statement.

"The allocation depends on the proximity to or distance from the kitchen, and on whether or not one follows the marching orders of Malacañang and the majority," he added, speaking in Filipino. "Pork barrel" is long-standing shorthand in the Philippines for budget allocations tied to projects nominated by individual legislators — a system the Supreme Court moved against in 2013 when it struck down the Priority Development Assistance Fund.

Mr. Tinio noted that the proposed allocation for Ilocos Norte's first district office is roughly 120 times the amount given to the smallest offices, and that these figures exclude projects lodged under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Central Office.

The proposed budget likewise contains 1,078 new Central Office projects worth P112.7 billion, of which 925 — totaling P110.6 billion — cost at least P50 million each, he said. "These are the largest insertions," Mr. Tinio said, adding that most of the projects identify specific towns and roads. In budget parlance, insertions of this kind are projects added during congressional deliberations on top of the National Expenditure Program, the spending plan the executive branch submits each year.

The lawmaker called on House leaders to publish the complete list of 6,212 new projects worth P180.5 billion, including their locations and proponents, before the Senate deliberates on the proposed budget. He said the public should be able to determine which districts received additional funding, as well as which foreign-assisted and National Expenditure Program projects were cut or dropped to accommodate the new insertions. The Senate's deliberations are the next stage of the budget cycle, ahead of the reconciliation of the two chambers' versions into the General Appropriations Act, which the President signs into law.

Mr. Tinio argued that the proposed funding could instead address shortages in classrooms, hospitals and rural health units, along with the compensation demands of government workers.

Source: BusinessWorld — reporting by Pexcel John Bacon