Senate realigned P75 billion in 2019 budget – Andaya

Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. (File photo by EDWIN BACASMAS / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate realigned P75 billion in the 2019 national budget after it had already been ratified by Congress, according to Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., chairman of the House appropriations committee.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Andaya bared the alleged “post-bicam realignment” following fresh claims by the Senate against the House of Representatives.

“Senators are desperately looking for ghosts in the 2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA),” Andaya said. “The problem [is] they seem to find ghosts everywhere except at their own house.”

“If post-bicam itemization of lump-sum budget by the House of Representatives is unconstitutional or irregular, what about post-bicam realignment by the Senate of P75 billion in the national budget?” he added.

Andaya issued the statement after Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said that the House realigned some P79 billion under the ratified 2019 national budget.

Sotto cited a report from the Senate’s Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring office to support his statement.

READ: Sotto bares P79 billion realigned in 2019 national budget

Sen. Panfilo Lacson also earlier alleged that Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo directed the realignment of P25 million from the Department of Health for her “favored” representatives.

READ: Lacson: Arroyo realigns P25M budget to ‘favored’ solons

However, Andaya said that the House was only itemizing the items in the appropriations under the ratified 2019 national budget to make it “more transparent and easy to scrutinize.”

READ:

Andaya: House only itemizing, not manipulating 2019 budget

Andaya: Nothing illegal in House move to itemize allocations under DOH budget

Andaya said that it was now the senators’ turn to explain the P75 billion he claimed to have been realigned by the Senate after both chambers have ratified the budget.

The P3.757 trillion national budget for 2019 was ratified early February but has yet to be submitted to the President for signature.

READ: After months of delay, Congress finally ratifies 2019 budget

“The realignment is also nowhere to be found in the bicameral conference committee report. Worse, unlike in the House of Representatives, there are no proponents for the Senate realignment,” he said.

“Meaning, the funds are parked somewhere in the national budget. This is clearly parked pork,” he added.

READ: Lacson bares new kickback scheme using ‘parked pork’

Andaya claimed that of the amount that he said was realigned, “at least P25 billion was parked as additional fund for the senators’ pet projects in the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways).”

“No details of the parked funds were contained in the bicam report. Members of Congress will again be at a loss how the parked funds of the senators found their way to the congressional engineering districts,” he said.

“Lolobo na naman ang pondo ng mga engineering districts at sasabihin na sa mga congressmen iyon. Pero sa totoo lang, mga senador ang naglagay ng additional funds sa mga distrito,” he added.

[The funds of the engineering districts will become inflated again, and they will blame that on the congressmen. But in truth, the senators are the ones putting additional funds in the districts.]

Andaya also noted that there would be no way determining the proponents of the said projects “since the Senate did not submit the individual names of the proponent per project.”

He maintained that the House “did its job” and itemized its amendments, which he said was “within the parameters of the Bicameral Conference Committee Report ratified by each chamber.”

“If lump-sums are not itemized, then that is illegal and unconstitutional. That was the main reason why we scrutinized the budget proposal because there were insertions made without the knowledge of officials concerned,” he said.

“Now, it seems we go back to the same practice after all has been said and done,” he added. /atm