Lacson insists P14B in DPWH budget is ‘pork’

MANILA, Philippines— Senator Panfilo Lacson has confirmed the presence of at least P14 billion “pork” in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) alone after the Senate wrapped up its floor deliberations on the 2020 budget.

“Mga nasa P14 billion sa DPWH pa lang… (About P14 billion in the DPWH alone), ” Lacson said during Thursday’s forum at the Senate.

Proof of this “pork” in the  DPWH budget, he said, was the double allocations, for instance, for Kennon Road with P507 million and P76 million allotted for the same project.

“Pag requesting for infrastructure project tapos ilalagay mo sa GAA (General Appropriations Act) , di ba abuse of discretion yun?” he said.

(If a request for infrastructure project is already in the GAA, isn’t that abuse of discretion?)

“Tapos mayroon kang doble-doble na popondohan, dalawang pondo, isang project. Di ba grave abuse of discretion yun? So pork pa rin yun, “ the senator added.

(Then you have double allocations, two funds for one project. Isn’t it abuse of discretion? That’s still pork)

Lacson insisted that these questionable allocations are “pork barrel,” which has long been declared illegal by the Supreme Court.

He said the SC’s definition of “pork” should not be confined to post-enactment identification of projects by legislators.

After all, Lacson believes that those who were trying to insert “pork” in the budget have now become wiser.

Unlike before where “pork” was allegedly inserted during budget deliberations, Lacson claimed that congressmen submitted their project proposals during preparations of the budget.

“And I know for a fact, dahil nanggagaling din naman sa mga House members, na bago pa lang ma-i-finalize yung NEP, pinatawag na nila yung heads ng mga agencies, “ he said.

(And I know for the fact because the House member themselves were saying that they called the heads  of agencies even before the NEP was finalized.)

NEP is the National Expenditure Program or the President’s budget, which is being submitted to the House of Representatives for approval.

“Wais e. Dahil trinansmit sa amin, wala ka talagang masisilip…(They are really smart because you can’t see anything when it [budget] was transmitted to us)” he said.

This was the reason why Lacson suspected that the NEP’s submission of the budget bill to the House might have contained P20 billion in “pork.”

Edited by MUF