Despite its belt-tightening pronouncement, the Aquino government has proposed a P22.3-billion pork barrel next year, a 223.18 percent increase from this year’s allocation of P6.9 billion – with the P15.4 billion increment to finance infrastructure projects.

Budget and Management Secretary Florencio Abad said President Benigno S. Aquino III raised the allocation of the pork barrel, officially known as Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), next year with a safeguard, requiring a “menu” for the utilization of the fund.

“The PDAF is higher at P22.3 billion. However, this will incorporate both the hard and soft components of the program. The menus will be limited to the priority programs of the administration,” Abad said last the administration,” Abad told reporters last Monday.

The higher pork barrel system was among the highlights of the proposed P1.645-trillion national budget for 2011, a 6.7 percent increase from the 2010 budget of P1.54 trillion. Although the increase in absolute terms of the pork barrel is significant, the propose amount represents only 1.355 percent of the General Appropriations Act for 2011.

Even as the PDAF allocation was increased, the government proposed a reduction of subsidy programs, tighter funding for government corporations, including their allowances, among others, amid the state’s cash flow problems.

Abad said the implementing departments are also required to publish the details and status of the projects in the website. He explained that the government wanted to rationalize the use of the lump sum funds, such as the PDAF, “to increase effectiveness, accountability, and reduce leakages.”

President Aquino earlier said he would keep the PDAF allocations but would ensure the funds are equitably distributed and wisely spent. President Aquino likewise assured the 270 members of the House of Representatives and the 23 senators would get their allocations.

A congressman is usually entitled to P70 million a year in pork funds while each senator gets P200 million annually.

In the 2011 budget proposal, Malacañang also adopted several “responsible and prudent expenditure policies” to help curb the swelling budget deficit.

The government has significantly reduced funding support for government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) from P59.1 billion in 2010 to P23.3 billion in 2011 budget proposal amid plans to implement reforms in some problematic firms.

Under the proposed NG support for the GOCCs, the subsidy for these state firms was reduced from P14.2 billion in 2010 to P7.3 billion next year.

The government also removed the P8-billion subsidy for rice procurement in the National Food Authority, which would instead be used by the Department of Social Welfare and Development for rice subsidies to the poor.

“The support for corporations will decline significantly by about half with the rethinking of NG support to the programs of problematic GOCCs like NFA, LRTA (Light Rail Transit Authority), MRTC (Metro Rail Transit Corporation) and other GOCCs,” Abad said.

“We are deferring the P4-billion equity for BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas). We can reduce the tax subsidies for rice importation given the plan to deregulate rice importation to the private sector and let NFA take care only of buffer stocking and regulation,” he added.

Abad said benefits of officials in government corporations and financial institutions would be tightened while additional expenses for utilities, communications, and supplies would be limited.

“From the very start, the President has been saying that we have to be frugal and conscious of the deficit that we inherited. I think that call may have an impact," he said.

He acknowledged that there was a need to attend to the long delayed GOCC reforms “like those in the NFA, LRTA and MRT problems which have become substantial financial burdens.”

LRTA, NFA, the Philippine Coconut Authority were among those cash-strapped GOCCs that then Finance Secretary Margarito Teves has recommended for streamlining during the Arroyo administration.

The diminished support for the GOCCs came amid complaints over the excessive salaries and allowances of top government executives while the companies’ finances remain on the red.

Under the 2011 budget, the government would also put a stop to the construction of new state offices as well as purchase of new vehicles while tightening allocations for state universities and colleges.

Abad also disclosed the possible deactivation of some agencies and GOCCs such as Quedancor, the Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation (PCIC), task forces in the Office of the President, and locally funded projects that have finished their mandates.

He said the government also scrapped programs implemented by the previous administration that were “no longer delivering the outcomes intended.” Among these projects are Food-for-School program, input subsidies of the Department of Agriculture, Kalayaan Barangay Program that provides development projects in rebel-infested places, and the Kilos Asenso Program that provided funds for infrastructure projects in provinces.

Abad said the conditional cash transfer program, on the other hand, would be raised from P10 billion this year to P21 billion and the beneficiaries from one million to 2.3 million.

In the 2011 budget,, the Department of Education gets the biggest share with P207.3 billion, followed by Department of Public Works at P110.6 billion, Department of National Defense at P104.7 billion, Department of Interior and Local Government at P88.2 billion, Department of Agriculture at P37.7 billion, DSWD at P34.3 billion, Department of Health at P33.3 billion; Department of Transportation and Communications at P32.3 billion, Department of Agrarian Reform at P16.7 billion; and the judiciary at P14.3 billion.