“The BBL is basically an appropriations bill. It creates financial obligations in the tens of billions of pesos. It binds the national government, and ultimately taxpayers, to allocate large sums of money every year,” said the senator.
“On the first year alone of the Bangsamoro establishment, the projected minimum cost is P75 billion,” he said, citing official estimates on the fiscal impact of the creation of the Moro sub-state in Mindanao.
A big chunk of this is in the form of a “block grant,” which in 2016, according to testimonies of government officials, will be around P27 billion, Recto explained.
“In the draft BBL, the block grant is automatically appropriated, meaning Congress is obliged to approve it. It may be open to congressional scrutiny, but not to congressional deletion or even reduction,” he said. “Ang sabi ng marami, parang sovereign debt na natin ito. Kasi nga sa budget natin, ang pambansang utang ay automatically appropriated.”
The BBL, he said, also provides for a “Special Development Fund” which will be remitted by Manila to the Bangsamoro government.
“This is P10 billion, an amount that is bigger than the combined budget of the Tourism (DOT) and Trade and Industry (DTI) departments, or the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA),” said the senator.
On top of these entitlements, Recto explained that villages, cities, towns and provinces constituting the Bangsamoro region will continue receiving their Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA), which is the share of local governments from taxes collected by the national government.