Incoming Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno criticized the Aquino administration's bottom-up budgeting (BuB) program, saying it is being used as a political tool.

In an interview with ANC's Headstart on Monday, Diokno said the internal revenue allotment (IRA) is a "formula-based, no-questions asked" method of disbursing funds to the local government units.

"They have more than enough, they receive one-fourth of the internal taxes of the national government. I think it’s close now to P400-billion. The local governments are getting this in terms of grant-in-aid," he said.

The BuB, he said, started as an assistance to local governments of third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-class municipalities; but as of late, all cities receive additional budget from the government.

"That’s a political tool," he said.

"Now, they are making this BuB as a tool for giving out additional projects," he said.

BuB was introduced by the administration of outgoing President Benigno Aquino III as an alternative to the traditional top-down budgeting.

The briefer on its website states that the BuB was implemented to "make the national budget more responsive; to encourage local governments to implement reforms; and to deepen democracy and empower citizens."

But under him, Diokno said he wants to limit the BuB to depressed municipalities, subject to the approval of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte.

"I will continue it, but I think it will be subject to the president’s desire, but it will be limited to the depressed municipalities," he said.

BUDGET REFORM ACT

Diokno, who has served as budget secretary to Presidents Corazon Aquino and Joseph Estrada, claims to be "instrumental in designing the present form of the budget since 1986."

As he returns to his former post, he said he wants the improvements since then to be institutionalized through a new budget reform act.

"There are many improvements since then and I want this embodied in the budget reform act, consistent with the recent Supreme Court decisions on PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) and DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program)," he said.

He criticized the underspending of the government agencies, saying the non-progress of several projects must be evaluated if it is caused by low absorptive capacity or the ineptness of the department head.

"If there’s a huge budget for school buildings, and it’s not moving, why are you going to penalize the kids for this ineptness, incompetence of the secretary?," he said.

"There are so many projects that are not moving. Why not remove the secretary? Replace him with someone who’s more capable," he added.

Diokno also emphasized the importance of good budgeting in such scenario.

"You cannot implement well a poorly-prepared budget...Why aren’t the projects running? They said because there are a lot of problems down the road. Then that means there’s a problem in the budget preparation. You don’t put into the budget projects which are not ready to go," he said.

Meanwhile, Diokno maintained the DAP is unconstitutional.

"The Constitution is very clear: the president cannot spend a single peso without authority from Congress. The budget has to be authorized by Congress," he said.

Diokno himself was one of the petitioners in the DAP case, in behalf of the Philippine Constitutional Association.

"The meat of the DAP is declared unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court is very clear: authors of the DAP are liable. That’s beyond me. It’s up to the lawyers to do that," he said.

But Diokno vows not to take an active role in running after Aquino or outgoing Budget Secretary Butch Abad.

"I will not actively pursue that, but it’s up to the lawyers. My job is done," he said.