Sen. Loren Legarda. RICHARD A. REYES/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Sen. Loren Legarda on Sunday said she has prodded Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson to seek clarification from the Supreme Court on what he identified as pork barrel allocations in the approved P3.3-trillion national budget for 2017.
Legarda, who chairs the Senate finance committee that tackled the budget measure, said there was a need for clarity in the 2013 high court ruling that prohibited lump-sum allocations for lawmakers to fund chosen projects or identify projects after the budget measure had been approved.
“I am glad he (Lacson) would raise the level of discussion so that every year there will be no more debate (if there is pork in the budget) every year,” Legarda said in an interview on dzBB.
During the budget deliberations, Lacson identified several billions in pesos in lump-sum allocation in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) that were originally in the budget of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
He had questioned, among other things, the P8.3 billion lodged in the budget of the DPWH, which was taken from the ARMM budget. He said this violated the ARMM Organic Act because a national government agency cannot implement ARMM projects within the region.
Lacson, through the Senate panel, was able to have the P8.3 billion reallocated to the Commission on Higher Education so that it could provide free tuition next year for poor but deserving students in State Universities and Colleges.
But Lacson had also asked President Duterte, who is set to sign the budget measure into law on Dec. 22, to veto the P3.6 billion lodged in the DPWH budget and several other allocations that he insisted were pork barrel for legislators.
If the President fails to do so, Lacson said he will question the pork insertions before the Supreme Court.
The high court in 2013 declared as unconstitutional the Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel, which is used to finance pet projects of members of the Senate and House of Representatives.
Asked in the radio program whether there were pork insertions in the 2017 budget, Legarda said there were no lump-sum allocations but there were line items.
She said that while the ARMM was given lump-sum allocations, this was stipulated in the ARMM law or the Organic Act. The Act provides that allocations be assigned in the region and that it was up to its regional assembly to discuss and decide its spending. This was the argument raised by congressmen during the budget deliberations.