Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson. VINCENT CABREZA/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON FILE
Some lawmakers had been allegedly given up to P5 billion “pork” allocations in the 2017 national budget, Senator Panfilo Lacson disclosed on Wednesday.
While the Senate was deliberating the 2017 budget in the plenary, Lacson said congressmen from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao ( ARMM) came to see him pleading for their case.
“Inabot nga kami ng 10 p.m. sa office ko explaining in so many words, thus — ‘buti nga daw sila, tig-P1.5 billion lang na projects. Yung iba raw congressmen abot ng tig-P5 billion,’” he said in a statement, quoting the ARMM lawmakers who approached him.
“Change is coming? Maybe, pero it’s pork allocations changing hands from LP congressmen to those from Mindanao,” the senator said, referring to the former ruling Liberal Party.
READ: Lacson sees pork in budget | No ‘pork’ in 2017 budget, Diokno insists
Unlike congressmen, Lacson said, some of his colleagues had been asked to identify a list of projects amounting to P300 million only.
“At least two of my colleagues commented in the lounge during session suspensions: ‘Sobra naman sila… tayo ngang mga senador, tig P300-M lang…’” he said.
“By the way, I did not submit my P300-million list of projects. Senators Tito Sotto and Kiko Pangilinan approached me on separate occasions to inform me that they too did not submit. I don’t know who else among my Senate colleagues likewise did not submit their list.”
“I am not stupid. Filipinos are not stupid. They are just resigned, I think. After all these years that I and my staff scrutinize the budget books year in and year out, I know pork when I see it,” he said.
Lacson said those who identified projects in the 2017 budget would not get commissions from contractors.
“What I’m trying to say is Filipinos are made to believe that the PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) is dead after the SC (Supreme Court) ruling in 2013. I am not stupid. Filipinos are not stupid. They are just resigned, I think. After all these years that I and my staff scrutinize the budget books year in and year out, I know pork when I see it,” he said.
“I believe our people, especially our taxpayers, should know the real score behind all these pretenses and denials about the existence of pork,” the senator added.
Lacson and neophyte Senator Sherwin Gatchalian did not vote for the Senate ratification of this year’s national budget. CBB