Sen. Panfilo Lacson. (File photo by JAM STA. ROSA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo Lacson labeled as “hypocrisy” the claim of some “talking heads” in the House of Representatives that its alleged post-ratification budget just itemized lump sums for transparency.
“Trying to hide their unconstitutional post-ratification budget realignments by claiming they wanted to itemize lump sums in the name of transparency: If that’s not irony — or hypocrisy, I don’t know what is,” Lacson said in a statement on Sunday.
READ: Andaya: House only itemizing, not manipulating 2019 budget
In an earlier comment on Twitter, Lacson said: “National budget: Don’t be fooled by congressmen tasked to make us believe they merely ‘itemized’ when in fact, they arbitrarily realigned to favored districts several appropriations already approved by both houses of Congress thereby sacrificing already vetted infra projects.”
The House “talking heads,” he said, were muddling the issue to confuse the public.
According to Lacson, the “reality” is that the lower chamber has realigned several items on the proposed budget, which does not “reflect the agreed provisions incorporated in the bicameral report.‘
“There is a big difference between itemizing, which is to present as a list of individual items, and realigning, which is to change or restore to a different state,” he added.
Lacson cited figures from the Senate Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office that showed a net increase of P95.1 billion in the realignments of the House.
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According to Lacson, these include the slashing of P72.319 billion from the Major Final Output (MFO) 1 and 2 of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
He accused the House of realigning P79.7 billion from several congressional districts to other districts.
Lacson added that the House had also parked P70 billion in the central office of the DPWH after removing them from 87 District Engineering Offices (DEOs).
“Parking the P70 billion in the DPWH’s central office was meant to make it difficult for people — including myself — to trace where it will go,” he said.
“You could call it a veiled effort to conceal large ‘pork insertions’ of some congressmen,” he added.
The passaged of the proposed national budget for 2019, which has been ratified last Feb. 8, has been stalled due to the disagreement between the Senate and the House.
READ: Pimentel affirms Senate’s position to maintain ratified budget bill
Senators have been urging the retention of the ratified version of the budget bill with lump-sum appropriations, while the House wants to pass the budget that it has itemized after both chambers have ratified it.
READ: Sotto: Senate open to special session to break budget impasse
The proposed budget has not been submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte. /atm
READ: No consensus yet on 2019 budget despite meeting with Duterte