Senator Panfilo M. Lacson said today the proposed 2021 P666.4 billion budget of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) appeared to have been mangled beyond recognition.

"Di na natin makilala. Ang tanong ko lang and I just want a forthright answer, did the late submission involve intervention from some legislators or was it entirely their own doing?’’ Lacson asked DPWH Secretary Mark A. Villar when the latter appeared before a Senate public hearing to defend his department’s 2021 budget. (We don’t know what shape it is now. My question is…)

Lacson, an anti-pork barrel advocate, did not get a straight answer from Villar.

Instead, Villar said: ‘’The ceiling was given to us (before) the deadline (on September) 17. The ceiling was given (on the) 16th, the day before. I spoke with DBM (Department of Budget and Management) requesting, we would not be able to physically finish it in a single day.’’

‘’For compromise, we would submit a detailed annex that would basically give the details of the budget. that’s what happened. Basically the ceiling was given at a date very close to the actual printing which rendered us unable to give details in such a short time,’’ he added.

Lacson explained that during the budget briefing on general principles last September 9, he asked the DBM secretary to clarify and provide details of the lump sum appropriations under DPWH in the total amount of P396.45 billion lodged in the Central Office, as well as re-appropriations totaling P135 billion consisting of 5,913 line items already listed in the 2020 (General Appropriations Act (GAA) but have reappeared in the 2021 National Expenditure Program (NEP) bearing exactly the same technical descriptions but without proof of discontinuance, cancellations or abandonment.

He recalled DBM Secretary Wendel Avisado stating that he would coordinate with Villar and submit what is necessary in compliance and in accordance with their observation.

‘’It appears that when DPWH belatedly submitted their NEP last September 7, what we see is a mangling of the entire appropriations of the agency in the total amount of P666,474,289,000 beyond recognition,’’ Lacson pointed out.

Lacson also discovered that the DPWH reduced by P11 billion its budget for national roads and bridges and also reduced by P8.4 billion tourism-oriented roads.

He noted that the NEP has P176 billion allocated to local government projects that included roads and multi-purpose building but this rose to P229 after the DPWH asked for an additional of almost P53 billion.

The DPWH reportedly set aside P67 billion for multi-purpose halls in the midst of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.   

Lacson earlier forecast a ‘’bloody’’ Senate and House of Representatives bicameral conference meeting to iron out their differing version of the 2021 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) over the presence of ‘’pork barrel’’ appropriations in the budget.

The Supreme Court had ruled that ‘’pork barrel’ appropriations are unconstitutional.

Reports have it that ranking House officials would be getting more than P700 million each in pork barrel appropriations.’’