Senator Panfilo M. Lacson on Wednesday emphasized the importance of transparency in the current Senate and House of Representatives bicameral conference committee meetings even if it had been reduced to a ‘’Committee of Two.’’
(Joseph Vidal / Senate PRIB / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
The ironing out of the differing provisions of the versions of the Senate and Lower House 2021 national budget is now being done by two men -- Senator Juan Edgardo ‘’Sonny’’ M. Angara, chairman of the Senate finance committee, and his House counterpart.
‘’In fact, I already instructed my staff to coordinate closely with the (Senate) Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office (LBRMO) on whatever movements of funds before the final version of the bill is presented to the bicameral members for our signatures and approval,’’ Lacson, chairman of the Senate National Defense Committee, said.
‘’Also, I practically demanded that I be furnished with a copy of the details of the Senate version before the convening of the bicameral conference, as what we had until yesterday morning was only the summary of the Senate version,’’ he added.
Both panels began yesterday the yeoman’s job of crafting a consolidated budget measure.
‘’Having said all that, we already found some realignments that may seem questionable, based on our preliminary examination. For instance, while some of my recommended slash from the Department of Public Works and Highways' (DPWH;s) budget was adopted, we also noticed at least P10 billion worth of infrastructure projects realigned within the same agency under the Senate version.
‘’While we can identify the locations of the Senate-realigned projects, we may not be able to identify the senator-proponents. This is the reason why I have always called for transparency in all our individual amendments by posting the same on our official websites for the media and the public to see,’’ he pointed out.
‘’As I already stated, these are very preliminary even as we continue our scrutiny of the budget measure. Thus, the importance of transparency cannot be emphasized enough,’’ he added.
Lacson is a known advocate against the ‘’financially-rewarding’’ pork barrel system.