TRANSCRIPT OF INTERPELLATION Senator Risa Hontiveros with Finance Secretary Ben Diokno Commission on Appointments

November 23, 2022

SRH: Just a few policy questions, Sir. First on the Military and Uniformed Personnel Reform. You once said (August 13, 2013 in the Business world column) that every day of inaction causes the pension for military and uniformed personnel to balloon. We know of course that the annual budget to pay the pension of our military personnel is bigger even than the 4Ps program, for example; and that it is now a long-term P9.6 trillion unfunded obligation of Government

Unang tanong po. Paano po plano ng DOF i-address ito at paano po isosolve ng Secretary ang growing unfunded benefits na ibinibigay po sa ating uniformed and military personnel?

DIOKNO: Thank you very much in fact that is one of the priority bill of the President. That's the elephant in the room. I always say that. Right now, it is I think P120B in the current 2023 budget proposal and that would continue to balloon unless we will address that issue. We cannot no longer afford to just ignore it. The proposal, Your Honor, if the military pension will be covered by the GSIS. We stand the GSIS so there will be civilian component and a military component but we have to respect what has already been committed to those who have retired so from now on after the military pension bill was passed those who will enter, those who are in active service will contribute. How can you have a pension system when there are no contributors? So magkakaroon po ng two class of services. Those who have retired to continue to honor the commitment and those who will be joining or those who are already in the service. So broadly that is the proposal, Your honor. And the nice thing about this is that once we have addressed this problem, then you create a fiscal space, can you imagine we don't have to appropriate P120B annually so you can use that 120B for more productive purposes.

SRH: Salamat, Secretary. Yes more productive purposes indeed including military modernization. So just as a way of increasing the buy in pati po ng ating mga magiging bagong pensioners. Mananatili naman ang kanilang [pagmamalasakit para sa institusyon na kanilang pinanggalingan. Salamat po doon and I look forward to the legislature also creating the policy support para doon sa broad strokes na dinescribe ni Secretary ngayon.

Dako naman po doon sa non-disclosure of the price of vaccine purchases. Binanggit din ni Sec kanina yung mga vaccines. Mr. Secretary we've been demanding for transparency and full disclosure about our vaccine procurement. Hanggang ngayon walang sumasagot kung magkano ang bili natin kada dose ng COVID-19 vaccines. So unang tanong po, Secretary, nasa 15B na ang tinatayang halaga ng bakunang nasayang. At guesstimate lang ito dahil sa non-disclosure ng presyo ng mga bakuna. Unang tanong hindi ba kayo nanghihinayang as DOF Secretary sa halagang ito? at maaari po bang iinform kami ng DOF Secretary kung magkano talaga ang nasayang? At kung may marerecover pa ba tayo sa mga ito based sa mga kontrata at agreement na pinirmahan ng gobyerno?

DIOKNO: Unfortunately , I cannot answer for the past transactions. But I understand that those vaccines that will expire will be replaced by CoVax so that there is a possibility of to recover part of the investment and the new acquisition of vaccines will now be covered by the new vaccine act which you passed. Wala na po kaming role masyado doon. It's really according to the vaccine act which you passed. Hindi na po kami nakikialam doon masyado.

SRH: Salamat pero would the Secretary agree with me di lang idea pero yung pakiramdam na nakakapanghinayang talaga kung totoong P15B ang nasayang sa mga nasayang na vaccines

DIOKNO: Of course, any unutilized vaccine if not replaced will be wastage, of course, I agree.

SRH: salamat at tama naman po kayo na lumabas ito sa budget interpellations namin sa Senado. Yung mga nasayang na vaccines na donated by CoVax na yun na nga po ay kanilang papalitan. kaya lang, unfortunately, hindi lang yung mga CoVax donated vaccines ang bumubuo sa mga nasayang at nasabi nga po ngayong araw ni Mr Joey Concepcion na karamihan diumano ng mga nasayang ay wala sa mga kamay ng private sector so by implication nasa kamay natin sa gobyerno. Sa paksang ito pa rin. Si Secretary ba ay magiging facilitative at cooperative sa pag-audit ng vaccine purchases?

DIOKNO: Yes.

SRH: Salamat po.At huling tanong sa paksang ito. Base sa mga dokumentong sinumite mismo ng Department, pwede po bang i-confirm ni Secretary, we got the highest value of our money at kung oo, bagamat nasabi na rin ni Secretary na he cannot speak about the purchases during the previous administration pero bilang DOF Secretary pa rin o muli pwede po bang i-provide ang aming Committee, ang aming Commission ng dokumento na susuporta sa kanilang claims.

DIOKNO: We provide necessary documents but the basis of my talks with the donors or the financing agencies like World Bank, ADB, we had a good negotiator, so I cannot talk about other countries but as far as our negotiators are concerned, they did a good job

SRH: Salamat Secretary I hope na kapag ka na-disclose na yung mga misteryosong non-disclosure agreements na iyan sa aksyon man ng DOF o aksyon ng COA ay makoconfirm nga natin, I mean we are willing to concede na we have good negotiators pero sana nakakuha sila ng very good negotiating price at maconfirm natin we did well nga po doo nsa mga presyo ng vaccines.

Dako naman sa ibang paksa, isang tanong dito. I filed yesterday Senate Resolution No. 315 asking that the Philippines support the proposal of the Africa group at the United Nations to begin intergovernmental discussions on ways to strengthen international tax cooperation including through a framework or instrument developed and agreed upon through a UN intergovernmental process and I would really like our beloved country to support this. Kaya po ba ng Sec na magtaya na hilingin sa ating UN Ambassador na suportahan ito? Medyo urgent lang itong tanong kasi yung boto dito ay inaasahan mamayang gabi, 11PM Pacific Standard Time sa UN sa New York.

DIOKNO: If you ask me of my support, it makes a lot of sense to support it because we are changing the forum from the developed countries to the UN which is addressed to both the developing and developed countries so I support that proposal.

SRH: I'm so glad to hear that salamat po. At para sa huling tanong ko po ngayong umaga, ano lang, tungkol doon sa cabinet cluster system at DOF leadership. Bakit wala nang jpoint press conferences yung ating mga economic managers? Nangangahulugan po ba ito na maaaring nawawala ang coherence ng ating pagresponde sa pagtaas ng presyo, kakulangan ng pagkain, pagbagsak ng piso at iba pa?

DIOKNO: Well the closest of a cluster is the development budget coordination committee and we have that joint press conference after our meeting which is on a quarterly basis.

SRH: Salamat Sec I do appreciate the role of the DBCC pero siguro hindi na rin masama kung pati yung cabinet clusters ay magpatuloy because siguro may mga overlap man sa pagitan nila at ng DBCC mayroon din naman po silang unique that they bring to the table.