Sotto, Lacson hit ‘fabulist’ solon over budget deadlock

Rep. Danilo Suarez. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Senators on Wednesday ganged up on a “fabulist” congressman for allegedly lying over the 2019 budget issue.

On Wednesday, House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez claimed that Senator Loren Legarda wanted to sign the budget but Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Sen. Panfilo Lacson had been objecting.

READ: Duterte urged to issue decisive order on 2019 budget

Legarda is chairman of the Senate committee on finance.

But Sotto and Lacson immediately denied Suarez’s allegation.

“I asked Loren re statement of Danny Suarez. Well, now I know, Danny Suarez is a fabulist,” the Senate leader said in a Viber message to reporters.

“What Senator Loren told us in the majority bloc is that Cong. Suarez kept pestering her about the budget which she had ignored,” Lacson said in a text message.

He said the senators, both in the majority and minority- are “solidly behind” Sotto on the budget issue.

“Has Cong. Suarez, the House ‘company union’ minority leader become so desperate for his share of the pork allocation that he now resorts to lying just to get his bounty?” Lacson asked.

“Or, is it because the abolition of the MVUC (Motor Vehicle User’s Charge) Road Board will have an immeasurable negative impact on some of the congressmen’s traditional source of largess?”

President Rodrigo Duterte recently signed a bill abolishing the graft-ridden Road Board.

Legarda, meanwhile, took to Twitter to reiterate the Senate’s support behind Sotto.

“We all stand by Senate Pres Tito Sotto re the budget. From the start. Unequivocally. Any misinformation is just that. Misinformation,” she said.

The Senate and the House of Representatives have traded allegations over the allegedly “pork-laden” national budget.

The 2019 General Appropriations Bill was already ratified by the Senate and the House last February 8 but it has yet to be transmitted to the President for signature./ac