Senators to 'cross party lines' to ensure transparent budget discussion
Published Sep 19, 2018 02:40 pm
By Hannah Torregoza
Senators on Wednesday vowed to cross party lines to ensure that the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for next year would be transparent and free of any illegal insertions.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
This happened despite the House of Representatives' move to scrap the P51.792-billion in pork barrel and realign the funds to underfinanced programs under the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Agriculture (DA) and rehabilitation efforts for typhoon ‘Ompong.’
“Yes, I think the whole Senate is unanimous on this. We will cross party lines in order to make sure that the budget is transparent and is consistent with the priorities as laid out in the economic plans,” Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon told reporters in an interview.
Drilon earlier vowed to block the passage of the proposed budget—even filibuster it—if there are still unauthorized realignment of funds found in it.
Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson echoed Drilon’s view, saying that based on what they discussed during their caucuses and the other senators’ public pronouncements, they would be united in scrutinizing the 2019 budget.
“Unang-una lubos kami nagpapasalamat sa mga nagbangayan at muntik nang magsuntukan na kongresista dahil napadali ang trabaho namin (First and foremost, we are very thankful to the congressmen who nearly went into a fistfight because they made our job easier),” Lacson told reporters in a separate interview.
Lacson, who has long been averse to using pork barrel funds, said the House lawmakers’ “intramurals” have made it easier for senators to track down where these fund “insertions” are parked.
“Sa halip na magsunog kami ng kandila para hanapin kung saan naka-lodge ang pork na hinihinala namin, sila na mismo nag-expose (Instead of burning candles to try to find where these suspicious ‘pork’ are lodged, they exposed it themselves),” he said.
“So ngayon, malinaw at nakita natin paano ni-realign ng grupo ni Rep. Andaya kasi ang P51.792-billion na naroon sa NEP at hinihinala nila na may kinalaman ang grupo ni dating Rep. Alvarez at may kanya-kanya silang proyekto roon,” Lacson said.
Lacson is referring to House Majority Floor Leader Rolando G. Andaya, Jr. and former House Speaker and now Davao City Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez; NEP stands for National Expenditure Program (NEP), which the Executive branch submits, to Congress for approval.
But reliable sources from both the Senate and the House revealed that the “brains” behind the budget insertion is a Malacañang official who is eyeing a senatorial seat in the upcoming May 2019 elections.
Lacson said they would make sure that fund realignments would be backed by studies and sufficient consultation.
“Kung walang pag-aaral at walang basehan dapat slash yan. O i-realign sa ibang items. Pwedeng doon sa mas nangangailangan. At ito narinig ko rin ang pronouncement ng mga kasamahan ko,” Lacson said.
“Mukhang magkatulong-tulong kami ngayon para tingnan mabuti ang viability at katuturan ng mga bagong proyekto na pinaglagakan ng pondo na galing sa P51.792-billion,” he said.
Drilon, on the other hand, said the minority bloc will scrutinize at least three items: “the NEP, the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) as filed in the House, and the GAB as the approved in the House.”
“When we compare these we will see the differences and we can find out where are those they tampered with and what departments suffered because of the movement?” Drilon explained.
“Halimbawa, we scrutinize the budget of the DOH as it appears that its budget was reduced by almost P9-billion for the personal service or salaries of the nurses and doctors,” he pointed out.
The minority leader pointed out that during the Senate’s budget hearing, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that around 15,000 health workers stand to lose their jobs after the DOH’s fund for health workers deployed in rural areas was slashed dramatically.
“Iyan po ang titingnan natin (We will look into that). We are not ready to make any conclusion until we see these documents,” he said.
“But what we can assure our people is that talagang iisa-isahin natin ito at titingnan natin. Hindi naman maitatago ito. For the sake of transparency, we will scrutinize the budget,” Drilon said.
Drilon said that in the event that the items where the funds are realigned are not considered a priority or are not justified fully, “then we’ll delete it. We’ll submit that it should be removed. This is the process.”
He warned that allocating funds for projects, which are not in the priority list in the economic plans of this administration, is very dangerous as it is prone to corruption.
“Certainly, because dahil baka naghihintay na yung mga contractor dahil may ganoon kalaking funds,” the senator said.
“As we have always said, insertion has acquired a bad meaning. Halimbawa, sasabihin natin na ibalik yung P10-billion na inalis sa sahod ng mga nurses, that is an insertion. It is a question of the nature of insertion,” he reiterated.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
This happened despite the House of Representatives' move to scrap the P51.792-billion in pork barrel and realign the funds to underfinanced programs under the Department of Health (DOH), Department of Agriculture (DA) and rehabilitation efforts for typhoon ‘Ompong.’
“Yes, I think the whole Senate is unanimous on this. We will cross party lines in order to make sure that the budget is transparent and is consistent with the priorities as laid out in the economic plans,” Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon told reporters in an interview.
Drilon earlier vowed to block the passage of the proposed budget—even filibuster it—if there are still unauthorized realignment of funds found in it.
Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson echoed Drilon’s view, saying that based on what they discussed during their caucuses and the other senators’ public pronouncements, they would be united in scrutinizing the 2019 budget.
“Unang-una lubos kami nagpapasalamat sa mga nagbangayan at muntik nang magsuntukan na kongresista dahil napadali ang trabaho namin (First and foremost, we are very thankful to the congressmen who nearly went into a fistfight because they made our job easier),” Lacson told reporters in a separate interview.
Lacson, who has long been averse to using pork barrel funds, said the House lawmakers’ “intramurals” have made it easier for senators to track down where these fund “insertions” are parked.
“Sa halip na magsunog kami ng kandila para hanapin kung saan naka-lodge ang pork na hinihinala namin, sila na mismo nag-expose (Instead of burning candles to try to find where these suspicious ‘pork’ are lodged, they exposed it themselves),” he said.
“So ngayon, malinaw at nakita natin paano ni-realign ng grupo ni Rep. Andaya kasi ang P51.792-billion na naroon sa NEP at hinihinala nila na may kinalaman ang grupo ni dating Rep. Alvarez at may kanya-kanya silang proyekto roon,” Lacson said.
Lacson is referring to House Majority Floor Leader Rolando G. Andaya, Jr. and former House Speaker and now Davao City Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez; NEP stands for National Expenditure Program (NEP), which the Executive branch submits, to Congress for approval.
But reliable sources from both the Senate and the House revealed that the “brains” behind the budget insertion is a Malacañang official who is eyeing a senatorial seat in the upcoming May 2019 elections.
Lacson said they would make sure that fund realignments would be backed by studies and sufficient consultation.
“Kung walang pag-aaral at walang basehan dapat slash yan. O i-realign sa ibang items. Pwedeng doon sa mas nangangailangan. At ito narinig ko rin ang pronouncement ng mga kasamahan ko,” Lacson said.
“Mukhang magkatulong-tulong kami ngayon para tingnan mabuti ang viability at katuturan ng mga bagong proyekto na pinaglagakan ng pondo na galing sa P51.792-billion,” he said.
Drilon, on the other hand, said the minority bloc will scrutinize at least three items: “the NEP, the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) as filed in the House, and the GAB as the approved in the House.”
“When we compare these we will see the differences and we can find out where are those they tampered with and what departments suffered because of the movement?” Drilon explained.
“Halimbawa, we scrutinize the budget of the DOH as it appears that its budget was reduced by almost P9-billion for the personal service or salaries of the nurses and doctors,” he pointed out.
The minority leader pointed out that during the Senate’s budget hearing, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said that around 15,000 health workers stand to lose their jobs after the DOH’s fund for health workers deployed in rural areas was slashed dramatically.
“Iyan po ang titingnan natin (We will look into that). We are not ready to make any conclusion until we see these documents,” he said.
“But what we can assure our people is that talagang iisa-isahin natin ito at titingnan natin. Hindi naman maitatago ito. For the sake of transparency, we will scrutinize the budget,” Drilon said.
Drilon said that in the event that the items where the funds are realigned are not considered a priority or are not justified fully, “then we’ll delete it. We’ll submit that it should be removed. This is the process.”
He warned that allocating funds for projects, which are not in the priority list in the economic plans of this administration, is very dangerous as it is prone to corruption.
“Certainly, because dahil baka naghihintay na yung mga contractor dahil may ganoon kalaking funds,” the senator said.
“As we have always said, insertion has acquired a bad meaning. Halimbawa, sasabihin natin na ibalik yung P10-billion na inalis sa sahod ng mga nurses, that is an insertion. It is a question of the nature of insertion,” he reiterated.