Comelec’s P4.1-B budget for PCOS likened to ‘Voldemort’
PCOS machine. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Senator Nancy Binay on Friday likened to “Voldemort” in the blockbuster movie Harry Potter the P4.1 billion given to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in 2012 supposedly from the government’s regular savings.
Binay said the source of the P4.1 billion budget used to buy precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines for the 2013 midterm elections was a “million dollar question,” which she raised during Thursday’s hearing of the Senate committee on Finance.
“In fact I’ve said it’s like Voldemort in Harry Potter, the project with no name,” she said in an interview over Radyo Inquirer 990.
During the hearing, Binay asked Budget Secretary Florencio Abad if the fund was part of the controversial Disbursement Acceleration Program, which was the subject of the hearing of the committee.
Abad said the fund was not part of the DAP but it came from the regular savings of the government.
Aside from the Comelec fund, Binay also grilled Abad over the additional DAP-funded projects given to certain government agencies without going through Congress.
She lamented in the radio interview that there were projects that had been funded already by Congress but not implemented and later declared as savings of the government.
Binay said the savings would then be used by the executive department to fund other projects without the approval of Congress.
“Opo para gastusin sa mga proyekto na hindi na dadaan sa Kongreso (Yes so they could spend it for projects without going through Congress),” she said when asked if funds allotted for certain projects were later declared as savings by the government.
