Sen. Panfilo Lacson. INQUIRER file photo / JAM STA. ROSA
MANILA, Philippines — The proposal to retain the lump sum appropriations in the proposed P3.8-trillion 2019 budget was “favorably” endorsed by the Executive department, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Wednesday.
Lacson said this to contradict House Majority Leader Fredenil Castro’s claim that the senator’s proposal did not sit well with President Rodrigo Duterte because “he does not want to be involved in allocating projects.”
READ: House leader: Lump sum in ratified budget ‘unconstitutional’
“Not true. Instead, my suggestion didn’t sit well with the congressmen,” Lacson said in a statement.
“Executive Secretary [Salvador] Medialdea and Finance Secretary [Carlos] Dominguez [III] in fact favorably endorsed my suggestion to President Rodrigo Duterte as a practical and logical approach to break the impasse,” he added.
Lacson made the proposal during a meeting on Tuesday night with the President, House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, House appropriations committee chair Rolando Andaya Jr., Senate President Vicente Sotto III, and Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, among others.
The senator said he informed the President about the House of Representatives cutting the P72.319-billion Department of Public Works and Highways appropriations, which, he said, “will have negative implications on the government’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ program.
“What was obvious last night is that the suggestion didn’t sit well with the congressmen because they cannot be sure if all their realignments will be adopted,” Lacson said.
“It’s all about their pork, not mindful if they will be derailing the flagship projects of the government,” he added.
Castro earlier said the House had reservations in retaining the lump sum appropriations in the bicameral conference report of the 2019 budget, as this would be “unconstitutional.”
Sotto earlier said Congressional leaders failed to reach a consensus on the 2019 national budget even after meeting with the President in Malacañang on Tuesday night. /jpv
READ: No consensus yet on 2019 budget despite meeting with Duterte