restoration of P4.9B original budget of COA, for real?

I just read an article from the Philippine Star today that the house VOWS to restore COA'S original P4.9B budget. As a COAn myself, I'll just keep my fingers, as well as, my arms crossed.

Read on the article below:

Citing the Commission on Audit’s gargantuan task of checking abuses in the disbursement of government funds, the House of Representatives yesterday vowed to restore the constitutional body’s original P4.9-billion budget for 2009.

“They (COA auditors) have been doing their job efficiently and credibly and with integrity. How can they do their job if we don’t give them what they need?” said Siquijor Rep. Orlando Fua, who heads the sub-committee of the House appropriations committee.

Fua said lawmakers are unanimous in wanting to restore COA’s proposed P4.9-billion budget, but he clarified they cannot do it unilaterally as they still have to seek clearance from Malacañang.

“We cannot restore. There is a move to restore, but we have to get first the permission of Malacañang,” Fua explained.

Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said the move sends a strong signal to the executive department that operations of constitutional bodies like COA should not be impaired, because they are essential to a democracy.

“The majority and the minority have a shared concern. Cutting the budget (of COA) sends the wrong signal. It’s a political statement coming from Congress. We should take steps not to reduce the COA budget,” he said.

Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros noted the other day the shrinking budget of COA.

She said the annual budget of COA has declined steadily since President Arroyo assumed office in 2001.

Hontiveros provided Congress journalists a yearly comparison between the increasing national budget, now pegged at P1.4 trillion, and the P4-billion COA budget for 2009, or a measly 0.29 share of the total budget pie.

The party-list congresswoman noticed that since 2002, COA yearly allocations – in percentage share – have been diminishing: 0.54 in 2002, 0.48 in 2003, 0.46 in 2004, 0.42 in 2005, 0.38 in 2006, 0.36 in 2007, 0.33 in 2008 and 0.29 by next year.

The budget for 2001, when Mrs. Arroyo took over from President Joseph Estrada, was a carryover of the previous year’s. Budget allocations of all agencies – from the executive, legislative and judiciary – are deliberated and approved a year in advance.

The national budget for 2002 was P742 billion, P825 billion in 2003, P867 billion in 2004, P947 billion in 2005, P1 trillion in 2006, P1.1 trillion in 2007 and P1.2 trillion in 2008.

“A weaker COA means more corruption in government,” warned Hontiveros. “It’s as if the government has been punishing COA for doing its job. We should in fact be increasing the budget of COA, and not the other way around.”

The deputy minority leader also lamented the fact that the Department of Budget and Management had “disallowed” three important items in the COA budget that are crucial to its task of checking financial abuses in government.

Foremost is the minuscule P5-million confidential and intelligence funds, followed by the P47 million for training of state auditors including the computerization of its “data-rich” functions, and the P100-million capital outlay for the improvement of COA satellite offices.

“This decrease is not just strange. It appears as if there is an intent to impair and weaken the institution itself,” said Hontiveros, who reminded the public that it was COA which exposed the P728-million fertilizer scam, among other irregularities.