Senator Panfilo Lacson answers questions from the media after the bicameral conference committee meeting on Friday, November 29, 2019, in Makati City, where lawmakers discussed the proposed 2020 national budget. Photo by Christia Marie Ramos/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines —Senator Panfilo Lacson on Friday expressed disapproval to the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) alleged amendment of its 2020 budget to include “new projects” worth P47 billion.
Emerging from a bicameral conference committee meeting, Lacson said it is “unacceptable” for DPWH to assume the role of Congress. The bicameral conference committee met for the first time to tackle the proposed P4.1 trillion national budget for 2020.
“Ang nangyari kasi, DPWH, when I questioned the lump sum appropriations, meaning hindi malinaw, mga vague ang description ng projects, that’s something like P45 billion. What they did, while dinelete nila ang kinwestyon ko, nag-introduce sila ng bagong projects worth P47 billion,” he told reporters in an interview in Makati City.
(What happened was, the DPWH, when I questioned the lump sum appropriations, meaning, meaning it was not clear, the description of the projects was vague, that’s something like P45 billion. What they did, while they deleted the projects which I questioned, they introduced new projects worth P47 billion).
He pointed out that only Congress can amend the proposed budget and not DPWH as it belongs to the executive branch.
“That is unacceptable. The DPWH, being an agency of the executive branch, cannot participate in amending the appropriations measure. Kami lang ang pwedeng mag-amend. Ang ginawa nila, effectively, ina-amend nila because they sent us a new list of projects,” he also said.
(That is unacceptable. The DPWH, being an agency of the executive branch, cannot participate in amending the appropriations measure. We are the only ones who can amend. What they did, effectively, they amended because they sent us a new list of projects).
“So ‘yan ang medyo siguro magkakaroon ng kaunting paguusap dito pag tinackle namin because mga bagong projects yan. Kung may galing sa HOR (House of Representatives) members ang errata na submit sa amin ng DPWH, magkakaroon ng kaunting adjustments doon,” he added.
(So that’s where we will have a bit of discussion when we tackle this because these are new projects. If the errata submitted by the DPWH were from the House members, there will be adjustments made there).