The Wrath of Milenyo

SEN. RALPH RECTO on Sunday sought the inclusion of P10 billion for the rehabilitation of the typhoon-battered Bicol region in the P1.126-trillion 2007 proposed national budget.

His colleague, Sen. Joker Arroyo, said the Senate and House of Representatives were keen on passing a supplemental budget for this purpose.

"If we're serious in helping the Bicol region, we should include this in the 2007 budget. There's little time to pass a supplemental budget for the rehabilitation of the region," Recto, chair of the committee on ways and means, said in a phone interview.

"Recovery can only begin if the budget is reconciled. No other people suffer more from its delay than the Bicolanos," he added in a statement.

The rehabilitation of Bicol, he said, should be a "strong argument" for the bicameral conference committee to break the impasse on the national budget and pass it before Congress adjourns on Feb. 9 for the May 14 elections.

Bicameral talks on the budget were suspended in December after the Senate and House panels failed to agree on whether to retain the P4.7-billion fund for the Department of Education's school feeding program, or realign it to cut down on the shortages in classrooms and teachers.

The government has been operating on the rolled-over P907.56-billion 2005 budget since Jan. 1.

Recto, however, conceded that if Congress failed to hammer out a new budget, the executive and the legislative branches could work on a "supplemental budget" to rehabilitate Bicol, and other areas hardest hit by typhoons, including Supertyphoon "Reming" (international codename: Durian) in December.

"The vacuum should be filled by the supplemental budget. But I hope it won't come to that point," he said. "I hope the House and the Senate can hammer out a new budget. Three natural calamities hit Bicol last year. The fourth one will be man-made and that would be the failure of Congress to pass a new budget."

Disaster officials had pegged at P50 billion the amount of damage to agriculture, infrastructure and private property wreaked by the typhoons, according to the senator.

Arroyo, for his part, said that both chambers would pass a P10-billion supplemental budget after it resumes sessions on Jan. 22 just as quickly as it approved the P2.5-billion supplemental budget to rehabilitate areas affected by the massive oil spill off Guimaras island.

The senator said that Malacañang had readied the P10-billion budget for approval last month, but was overtaken by the adjournment of Congress for the holidays on Dec. 21.