President Aquino has proposed a zero budget for the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) and the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) under the 2011 national budget.

Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office head Ramon Carandang however made clear the lack of appropriation of the two bodies doesn’t automatically mean they have been abolished.

“No, they still exist in paper,” Carandang said when asked if the President has effectively abolished the PASG and PAGC, which have been criticized for alleged redundancy.

“PASG and PAGC budget for 2011 is zero according to DBM (Department of Budget and Management),” Carandang said.

Carandang said the budget department still released the funds for PAGC for 2010.
“For 2011, there's no budget allocated for them,” he said.

President Aquino earlier disclosed plans to abolish PASG and other task forces that will prove inefficient in fulfilling their mandates. He noted that smuggling still persists despite the presence of the PASG, created through Executive Order 624 of then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2007.

The President also claimed that he would likely close down PAGC if the Office of the Ombudsman would perform its mandate well.

Meantime, the executive branch has also proposed to reduce the budget of government-owned and -controlled corporations in the 2011 budget proposal. From P32.3 billion this year, the proposed GOCC subsidy was slashed to R23.3 billion in 2011.

Carandang said they are reviewing the performance of government corporations amid concerns some are not performing well.

“If we reduced the subsidies of some GOCCs, we will channel them to pro-poor programs,” he said.

“But clearly, some GOCCs have underperformed. And the question is whether or not they should be continuing to receive money from the government in the same amounts that they are doing,” he said.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives was urged Tuesday to approve the proposed P23 billion budget for the judiciary next year, which aims to settle the government's P900 million worth of unpaid salary increases of about 2,308 justices and judges all over the country.

Lawyer Midas Marquez, spokesperson of the Supreme Court, said that about 2,308 justices and judges nationwide have been fighting to receive almost a billion worth of salary increases that were granted with the issuance of four Executive Orders (EO) since 2007.

"We are hoping that Congress will fund the back wages of our justices and judges,” Marquez told a public hearing conducted in the House committee on justice Tuesday morning.

In a related development, local government units (LGUs) were directed by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to make public their respective budgets and spending.

DILG Secretary Jesse Robredo signed Tuesday a memorandum circular directing the local governments of provinces, cities, and municipalities to post their budgets and spending on the websites and in public places and to have these published in newspapers. (With reports from Rio Ribaya and Jeffrey Damicog)