Lacson: ‘Final resting place’ for  P75B ‘insertion’ pending

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate has yet to discuss the ‘finalresting  place’  for the P75 billion budget cut  from the Department of Public Works  and Highways (DPWH).

Senator Panfilo Lacson  has this to say on Tuesday, a day  after  he proposed the  deletion of the  P75 billion, which was added to the agency’s budget even without  its knowledge.

No less than   DPWH  Secretary  Mark Villar admitted  that he  was not aware of the  additional budget  until he saw it in the National Expenditure  Program (NEP).

Asked in a text message where the  budget cut from DPWH  would go, Lacson said: “We will have to discuss the final resting place for the 75billion that we have already agreed to delete from the DPWH proposed budget.”

“We will make sure that the monies will be put into good use, just like the 8billion that I deleted from the ARMM (Autonomus Region in Muslim  Mindanao) in 2017 which we decided to realign for free tuition even at a time that the law on universal access to quality tertiary education was not yet passed,” he added.

In a separate text message,  Lacson said the House of Representatives might protest  if the  P75billion  cut  would be scrapped  from the 2019 national budget.

“Magkakagulo sila  sa HOR pag nawala yun,”’ he said.

“That’s what the new leadership chopped and redistributed among their allies since they suspected that the previous leadership was responsible for the additional P75 billion ‘insertion’ in the NEP,”   Lacson said.

The senator earlier  claimed that the delay in the transmittal of the  2019 General Appropriations  Act  to the Senate was  due to  “unfinished individual insertions”  in the House./gsg

READ: Lacson says ‘pork’ delaying 2019 budget approval