Lacson: Some congressmen trying to ‘recover’ vetoed items through 2020 budget
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Panfilo Lacson alleged Thursday that some congressmen are attempting to “recover” allocations for projects already vetoed in the 2019 national budget through insertions in the country’s spending bill for next year.
Lacson earlier said he received a file from the House of Representatives detailing last-minute insertions, mostly on flood-control projects.
He said that 1,253 budget items worth P83.219 billion were supposedly used as the congressmen’s ‘source’ of their ‘list’ of 742 projects worth P16.345 billion that were inserted in the bicameral conference committee report that was signed by the Senate-House panel Wednesday morning.
“Ang information na natanggap namin, ang natanggal noong isang taon dahil vi-neto ng Presidente, gusto i-recover nung ilang kongresista sa pamamagitan na naman ng 2020 budget. Kaya ayaw nilang tumigil,” he said in an interview with dzBB.
(Based on the information we received that the items that were removed because it was vetoed by the President, some congressmen want to recover it through the 2020 budget. They won’t stop).
President Rodrigo Duterte had vetoed items worth of appropriations worth over P95.3 billion in the 2019 national budget under the DPWH for “falling outside the government’s programmed priorities.
