Sen. Franklin Drilon. FILE PHOTO
Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon on Monday admitted submitting a list of projects that would be funded under the 2017 national budget but said these projects were subject to the approval of Congress and the President.
“I submitted. I’m not ashamed of it. I submitted. It’s up to the President to review it,” Drilon said in an interview with Senate reporters.
He said one of the projects that he submitted for funding is flood control in Iloilo.
“Yeah I submitted for possible funding. If this is disapproved, if it’s not released so be it…” the senator said.
“That’s the basic difference between the system before and the system now. The submission before, during the PDAF time, will leave no choice to the President but to implement the projects. Today, that is not so,” Drilon added.
PDAF is Priority Development Assistance Fund also known as “pork barrel” which was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Drilon said lawmakers are allowed to submit projects before the enactment of the budget and such submission could still be approved or disapproved by Congress and the President.
What was prohibited by the Supreme Court, he said, was the legislators’ “post” budget intervention.
Asked about Senator Panfilo Lacson’s claim that senators were asked to submit up to P300 million worth of projects, Drilon said: “There’s no such ceiling.”
“Yes, we admit that the leadership of the Senate, the chair of the committee, asked us what are the projects and who will submit these (projects) for the approval of Congress and for the approval of the President,” he added. JE/rga