Ping questions P17-B DPWH budget insertion

Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Thursday questioned the move of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to funnel some P17 billion in lump-sum allocations to finance infrastructure projects that were not originally included in the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020.

Lacson, who has kept an eagle eye on the government’s yearly spending program, lamented that despite efforts to trim the fat from the Duterte administration’s latest budget request, it was still stuffed with over P20 billion in pork items.

The Senate ended its plenary deliberations on the proposed allocations of all state agencies on Wednesday night as senators gear up for a period of amendments next week.

“The national budget is the hide-and-seek (game) of the elders. While they are trying to ‘hide’ things, we keep on ‘seeking’ for them,” Lacson said at the “Kapihan sa Senado” forum.

“Every year we play hide-and-seek … (It’s) exciting, sometimes irritating. (But it’s) more exciting than irritating. It’s like that,” he said.

Lacson said the DPWH submitted “errata” covering P17-billion worth of suspicious items that would be siphoned off for construction projects that were not in the National Expenditure Program prepared by Malacañang and the budget documents transmitted by the House of Representatives.

Lacson said the Senate was inclined to realign these funds to bankroll the Duterte administration’s three landmark legislations—the Universal Health Care Act, the free college education law and the national ID system.

He said the senators plan to also trim the budget of the transportation and education departments since they had accumulated “unused appropriations” worth billions of pesos from the previous years.