MANILA, Philippines — Senator Panfilo Lacson on Sunday said there were no pork insertions in the proposed 2020 national budget that was submitted by House of Representatives.
Lacson dubbed the current lawmakers at the House as “most behaved,” saying he only found P9.5 billion worth of institutional amendments.
“In fairness dito sa (to the) present House of Representatives, ito yata ang sasabihin kong most behaved na counterparts namin sa panahong ito (this is what I could say the most behaved counterparts for this season),” Lacson said over DZBB.
“Pero as far as ang na-transmit sa Senado, talagang P9.5B lang at puro institutional amendments (As far as what was transmitted to the Senate, it was only P9.5 billion and it was all institutional amendments),” the senator added.
The House approved the 2020 budget on Sept. 20 but the lower chamber transmitted the budget bill to the Senate on Oct. 1.
Lacson said the House stayed true to its word that it would realign only P9.5 billion to certain agencies.
“Pero ngayon talagang ang sinabi nila na nilagyan nila ng pondo ang NFA para sa palay; ang DOH para pag-augment sa Universal Health Care, talagang ‘yun lang,” Lacson said.
(But now they only placed funds for National Food Authority for rice and to the Department of Health for augmentation of Universal Health Care.)
“In fairness to Speaker APC, talagang pinangatawanan nila na ang P9.5B kasi binusisi talaga namin sa opisina talagang P9.5B ang ginalaw,”
(In fairness to House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, they followed their promise on the P9.5 billion realignments because we scrutinized it in the office and only the P9.5 billion was tweaked.)
READ: Only P9.5B realignments? Lacson sees swift OK of 2020 budget
The first regular session of 18th Congress is expected to resume this coming Monday. Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said P4.1 trillion national budget for next year will be the Senate’s top agenda. /je
READ: Zubiri: Proposed 2020 nat’l budget to be prioritized when 18th Congress resumes