The September 27, 2008 editorial of the Philippine Daily Inquirer entitled “Plugging the Leak” gave us an insight on some of the realities surrounding the budget process of the country. It implied that while the “power of the purse” remains with the Congress, the “power over the contents of the purse”, the way and how much should be spent where, still remains with the President.
The editorial postulates that the problems affecting the budget process can be minimized or even eradicated if the Congress will provide conditions for budget spending such as ‘disallowing the use of “savings” for rankly political purposes’. But while this idea is legally feasible, the innovations made by the present administration in controlling the whole budget process from planning to execution has made the existing laws obsolete and even inutile particularly on the aspect of checks and balances.
