MANILA, Philippines — Senator Panfilo Lacson suspects that the late submission of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) of its proposed 2021 budget was because of a “lot of haggling” between some legislators and the agency.
“My source from DBM (Department of Budget and Management) told us that ang reason for the hasty submission of erratic or erroneous appropriation for the 2021 NEP (National Expenditure Plan) kasi late nag-submit yung DPWH,” Lacson said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel on Friday.
“For what reason, I do not know. We can only suspect that there was a lot of haggling that went on between DPWH and some legislators,” he added.
“That’s what we were told. Of course, there is no way of validating it but why in the world, kasi Build Build Build [program] doon naka-anchor yung Reset, Rebound, and Recover, e bakit yung DPWH would be late in the submission of their proposed budget?” he further said.
The theme of the proposed P4.5 trillion national budget for 2021 is “Reset, Rebound and Recover: Investing for Resiliency and Sustainability.”
During the first day of budget deliberations in the Senate on Wednesday, Lacson flagged a total of P469 billion in lump sums and re-appropriations under the DPWH’s proposed budget.
The senator said this amount is more than half of the DPWH’s proposed P786-billion budget for infrastructure projects and programs.
“I raised a red flag on this and [Budget] Secretary [Wendel] Avisado was candid enough to admit that there’s indeed an error and he will correct it by asking DPWH to submit to him so he can submit to Congress yung errata,” Lacson went on.
He suggested that the flagged amount could be used to augment funding for other sectors, like for the research and development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the budget of which was cut by P76 million.
“At least a portion of that amount should be realigned or reassigned to other agencies that would be needing more appropriations. The DOST, I pointed it out, we are a nation of shoppers. And [personal protective equipment sets] lang i-import pa tayo…,” the senator said.
“We have a lot of homegrown talents. We have a lot of good scientists. In fact they’re migrating to other countries in the world and for all we know, the items we are purchasing or importing e gawa ng mga Pilipino din abroad so why don’t we just harness their talents to support them by way of the national budget so we can make our own inventions, creations,” he added.