By Ben Rosario  The chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts on Friday lauded the Senate leadership’s vow to be transparent in the Senate’s transparency in the budget deliberations, and called upon senators to likewise “avoid purveying fake news and rumors during budget discussions.” Anakalusugan partylist Rep. Michael Defensor (AnaKalusugan partylist Cong. Michael Defensor Official Facebook Page / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN) Anakalusugan Partylist Rep. Michael Defensor praised Senate President Vicente Sotto III for his guarantee of “an open, public and transparent debate” on the proposed 2020 General Appropriations Bill that was transmitted by the Lower House on October 1. In a statement, the senior administration congressman said it was now the Senate’s turn to conduct the same brand of free and transparent debates on the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget proposal. However, he stressed that, in keeping the Senate debates free, House members expect them to veer away from discussing baseless and misleading information about the national budget proposal. “Our only collective request is that we avoid purveying “fake news’ and rumors during budget discussions,” said Defensor. While Defensor was not specific on what incident triggered his appeal to senators, he could be referring to Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s public accusation that congressmen have inserted provisions that revived the allocation of “pork barrel funds” and billions of pesos in additional allocation for congressmen and House officials. Lacson’s allegations met heavy criticism from House leaders, including Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, as they vehemently denied his claim. “We hope that the Senate leadership being an institution that we look up to will debate and ensure that its collective membership will keep the time-honored inter-parliamentary courtesy,” said Defensor. The former Quezon City solon said the Lower House had already done its part when Cayetano outlined to the public the “institutional amendments that we effected.” Under the institutional amendments that were initiated by congressmen, a total of P9.52 billion in allocation originally allocated to finance the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls and purchase road rights-of-way were re-aligned for various expenditures of the Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, Department of Education, the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines and the UP-Philippine General Hospital. “The discipline and parameters of our debates and statements on the budget are not only for the Senate but as well as for the House of Representatives,” said Defensor. He said Cayetano, together with Majority Leader Martin Romualdez, House Appropriations Chairman and Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab and the entire House leadership, “did a great job for the Executive department in ensuring that this budget passes with no pork, no delay, and no parking."