Lacson: Close scrutiny of budget saved P300B

Senator Panfilo Lacson in Imus, Cavite. Screengrab from Lacson’s Facebook livestream

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo Lacson, presidential candidate of the Partido Reporma, was himself surprised that his close scrutiny of the national budget over the past 17 years saved taxpayers billions of pesos that would have been lost to corruption.

“I am not bragging, but the Filipino people saved some P300 billion in the 17 years I had been scrutinizing the budget. Even I did not quite expect the amount to be that big,” said Lacson, who was vice chair of the Senate finance committee until his resignation earlier this year.

Lacson, who was senator from 2001 to 2013 and then again from 2016 until next year, had made it his custom to scrutinize the budget at all levels—from the committee level to the plenary until the bicameral conference committee.

As part of his advocacy against congressional pork barrel, Lacson declined to use the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) allocated to his office, and he said he made sure that the P200-million allocation was returned to the National Treasury.

The PDAF was declared illegal by the Supreme Court in late 2013. It has, however, purportedly taken on different forms and names, such as “congressional initiatives” and “institutional amendments” to every year’s proposed spending measure.

Hinting how the national budget could be used by unscrupulous lawmakers to funnel discretionary funds to their pet projects, and generate kickbacks from these, Lacson said he would continue to keep a close watch in the preparation of the 2022 budget.

He reiterated his call to bring resources to the local governments so they can implement their development projects, through his proposed policy thrust of Budget Reform Advocacy for Village Empowerment (Brave) program.

Under Brave, Lacson said, the unused portion of the national budget, which averaged P328.85 billion from 2010 to 2020, could be channeled for use by local governments.