The Senate finance committee deemed the proposed P75.858 billion budget of the Optical Media Board (OMB) for 2023 to have been submitted for plenary decision.
This after Senator Jose ‘’Jinggoy’’ Ejrercito Estrada, a movie actor and producer, failed to push through with his recommendation deferring the approval of the OMB budget after expressing dissatisfaction over the questionable performance of its chairman, Jeremy Marquez.
After the Senate suspended its rules to allow Estrada to ask Marquez questions during its period of interpellation late yesterday, Estrada sought the approval only of the budget for the OMB personnel.
Estrada said that he "moved for the deferment of the approval of the budget of the Optical Media Board considering the failure of its Chairperson and CEO to perform its mandate."
"As admitted by Mr. Jeremy Marquez during our hearing, there was zero new administrative case filed against violators of Republic Act 9239 or the Optical Media Act of 2003," he stressed.
"The number of resolved administrative cases during his one-year term since November 2021 is also zero. To say that this is ineptitude on the part of the OMB leadership is an understatement," he pointed out.
"In a television interview, I mentioned about giving P1 budget to the OMB, pero kung iisipin malaki pa ito dahil zero nga ang performance sa ilalim ng liderato ni Ginoong Marquez (But I thought the P1 is big considering the 'zero’ performance of Mr. Marquez),’’ Esrada said.