MANILA, Philippines — It would be an “insult” to the administration to call the budget cuts in its infrastructure projects as “sabotage,” Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said on Thursday.
Camarines Sur Representative Rolando Andaya earlier said the Senate might be liable for sabotage when it allegedly “decided unilaterally” to slash the budget for government’s Build, Build, Build Program and other priority projects.
“It is the Senate that may find itself liable to the accusation of sabotage when it decided, unilaterally, to cut down the allocation for the President’s Build, Build, Build Program and other priority projects,” Andaya said in a statement Monday.
READ: Andaya: Senate cuts on 2019 budget ‘sabotaged’ Duterte’s programs
But Drilon shot back at Andaya, who chairs the House of Representatives’ committee on appropriations.
“That’s an insult to the administration,” the senator said during the Kapihan sa Senado.
“Does Cong. Andaya mean that Build, Build, Build is based on the pork barrel? That the Build, Build, Build cannot be implemented without the pork barrel? I don’t think so,” he added.
Drilon also responded to Andaya’s challenge for Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III to name the senators who made the cuts in the 2019 national budget.
“I have identified mine,” he said, “If you look at the records of the Senate, I have identified my amendments so yes, I join Cong. Andaya, I’ve always been transparent, and in records of the Senate, I stated what are the proposed realignments that I made.”
But all his amendments in the budget, he said, were approved in the bicameral conference committee and ratified by both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
After trading accusations, the two chambers eventually transmitted the 2019 budget to President Rodrigo Duterte for signature last March 26. /ee
READ: Sotto signs 2019 national budget with strong reservations