Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Thursday, August 19 said he finds the resignation of Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado worrisome especially since the proposed National Expenditure Program (NEP) of the government for 2022 has not yet been submitted to Congress.

Malacanang has confirmed Avisado has stepped down from his post as Department of Budget and Management (DBM) chief for health reasons. He earlier took a medical leave after contracting COVID-19.

Budget Undersecretary Tina Rose Marie Canda has been designated as the officer-in-charge (OIC) of the DBM.

“The resignation of Sec. Avisado is especially troublesome, because remember, the 2022 national budget has not yet been submitted,” Drilon pointed out in an interview on ANC’s Headstart.

“The sudden resignation is a little unusual. Of course, he said that it is for health reasons, we accept that...(But) this gives rise to a lot of speculation,” he further said.

Drilon explained that the DBM is now at the forefront of the controversy regarding the Department of Health’s (DOH) handling of its P67.3-billion COVID-19 response funds, which the Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged due to discrepancies.

During the Senate’s hearing on the COA report on the DOH’s COVID-19 funds, Drilon noted one of the main issue that cropped up is the P42-bilion worth of funds that was moved to the DBM’s procurement service (DBM-PS).

“The public speculates, whether you like it or not, especially with the COA report and given the past incidence where the procurement service was exposed to have been accountable for the overpricing of the face masks and face shields, which are essential tools to fight the pandemic,” the minority leader stressed.

Drilon also said the Senate will thoroughly scrutinize the proposed budget for 2022 which is pegged at P5-trillion, noting that it would be financed principally from borrowings.

“We will scrutinize it carefully. Remember that this budget will be financed principally from borrowings, because income from taxes would not be meeting its target because of the pandemic. We just hope that the borrowings or the funds are properly spent. There's a standard that the borrowings must not exceed 60 percent,” he explained.

“Therefore, we must have the correct priorities, let’s move to the backburner military spending, security spending, the anti-insurgency fund of the NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict), which I understand will be doubled. These are the priorities which we will closely examine. Is this a correct priority given the pandemic? Can we not postpone this in the meantime? We will examine this closely,” Drilon stressed.