Lacson: ‘House just itemizing the budget? My foot’

MANILA, Philippines — Does “itemizing” the 2019 budget give Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo the right to realign it even after ratification by Congress?

Senator Panfilo Lacson doesn’t think so. He insisted that the House of Representatives committed “clear grave abuse of discretion” and violation of the Constitution when it allegedly realigned some P25 million for Arroyo’s “favored congressmen.”

The said budget was allotted for the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) under the Department of Health.

But Andaya denied Lacson’s allegation, saying the House was itemizing the budget to make it “more transparent and easy to scrutinize.”

READ: Andaya: House only itemizing, not manipulating 2019 budget

The senator said Andaya’s claim that they are merely itemizing the budget was a “tacit admission that what we approved in the joint bicameral conference committee report are lump-sum appropriations; hence, the need to itemize.”

“Further, by itemizing, does it give the Speaker the discretion as to the distribution, at least of the HFEP menu list of allocations to the congressmen as what is claimed by several congressmen who called my attention to it after they received specific instructions from the speaker via SMS thru GMA’s staff named Salamanca?” Lacson said in a statement on Wednesday.

“If so, isn’t that a clear grave abuse of discretion and violation of Art VI Sec 26 (2) of the 1987 Constitution? My foot.”

Congress already ratified the 2019 budget last February 8.

Until now, however, the budget has yet to be transmitted to President Rodrigo Duterte for signature. /ee