MANILA, Philippines — There will be no “deadlock” in the 2019 national budget,” Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon has assured on Tuesday.
In an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel’s “Headstart,” Drilon added that the budget deliberations in the bicameral conference committee will be transparent to the public.
“Let me assure our people, that there will be no deadlock in the budget. We will approve it before we adjourn on February 8. I’m sure of that,” he said.
“Number 2, the budget process will be transparent because we have learned our lesson, you know with all this hullabaloo about insertions, etc, it will be transparent. That’s why the bicam is televised so the public will know,” the Minority Leader said.
Drilon also assured that there will be no more “post-enactment interventions,” citing the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling against it.
In 2013, the High Court declared unconstitutional the legislators’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) also known as “pork barrel.”
READ: SC declares PDAF unconstitutional
“Once it is passed, what you see there is what you get. If you see a road being built from Point A to point B, that is what it is,” Drilon said.
“Kasi before, we just have X billions as PDAF and then kaming mga legislators will identify what are the projects after . That’s what the SC struck down.”
He said both the Senate and the House of Representatives have agreed to itemize the budget line by line. /muf