Rody urged:

V
ti.

'pork'
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By CECILLE SUERTE FELtpE and JESS. E|AE* '\ 4EAOuN6 NBE),S il

Vetoing the "potk" in the p3.757-Irillion (1)
budget for 2019 would bd an affirmation of
President Duterte's much-touted strong po-
litical will Sen. PanfiIo Lacson said yeste"rday. ,@r,:f i",iffi ?il.ffi ;JlH'i1,"ffi",ilffi il,.?r$'P-r,i;ilFiJ'";tft fi
b--J
Asked for reaction to lawmakers who are in-
Lacson's suggestion, Ex, corrigibly insatiable and ,

ecutive Secretarv Salva- simply 'beyond redemp-

dor Medialdea s'aid in a tion,"' he said.
text message: "Let us not Under the 1.987 Con-
preempt the President." siitutiory the President
In a post on his Twit- "shall have the power
ter account, Lacson said to veto any particular
the President, who had item or items in an ap-
shown strong political propriatiory revenue or
will in a number of con- ' tariff bill, but the veto
troversial issues in the shall not affect the item
past, can expunge the or items to which he does
pork barrel from the bud- not object."
get using his line-item Lacson earlier bared
veto power, the presence of billions
"Mr. President, you of pesos of "pork" in the tpe pglrrpprNe siaE
have displayed your proposed budget, includ-
strong political will on ing at least P160 million
news WEDNESDAY I FEBRUARY 6, 2O'I9
several occasions. This for each House member.
time, use your line- The P160 million in:
item veto power over cludes P70 million for
the 2019 appropriations "hard" projects such as
measure by removing roads and flood control;
all the 'pork' inserted by . Turn to Page 8

Nu-xf PAq-€ ptx. . a


Rody ur$ed
rnd P30 m'illion f ot " soft"
)rotects such as textbooks
rnd scholarships.
Speaker Gloria Macapa-
;al-Arroyo added P50 rnil-
ion io the budget for "hard
rrojects" and P10 million for
ioft projects. Some House
nembers reportedly received
nuch more.
Even some senators had
reen found to have indij
ridual amendments totaling
123 billion.
I-acson said that while his
:evelations prompted some
'talking heads" to muddle
:he issue, it turned out they
tere actually advancing his
:ause in educating the public
nore about the "evil pork" in
he national budget.
He has issued a challenge
:o all fellow lawmakers to
nake ptrblic their amend-
nents to the budget bill, just
rs he has done by posting his
nstifutional amendments on
ris website.
"The national budget be-
ongs to the people because
FromPasel
it comes from taxpayers'
money. It is bad enough if the
money is not used properly;
it is much worse if the money
is abused by those in govern-
ment in the form of pork,"
Lacson stressed.
"The national budget is
the lifeblood of our countrv.
If we allow pork to ruin t(e
budget, we taxpayers will
suffer," he added.
Budget OK settoday
Despite the controversy
raised by Lacson, there seems
to be no stoppin8 the House
from finally approving the
proposed P3.757-trillion
budget.
The final shape of the
spending bill will appear in
the report of the bicameral
(bicam) conference commit-
tee jointly chaired by Ca-
marines Sur Rep. Rolando
Andaya Jr., appropriations
committee chairman, and
his Senate counterpart Loren
Legarda.
"I had a private meeting
with Senator Legarda just less we
this morning and we both
committed that we will have
it passed by Wednesday.
How we get there is another
problem," Andaya told The
Chiefs show on One News
Cignal TV on Monday night.
Asked yesterday what he
meant by their commitment
to pass the budget proposal
by today, Andaya said, "I will
try to do both - bicam and
(House) plenary."
Under their calendar of
sessions, the House and the
Senate have only until Fri-
day to ratify the conference
committee report on the pro-
posed budget for this year
Ccingressmen convene
only from Monday through
Wednesday, while senators
havp rrntil ihrrrsdav fo finish
the matter. Senatois are un-
likely to extend their session
up to Friday.
"All talks of a reenacted
budget are baseless. The 2019
national budget will be ready
for the President's signature
next week," Andaya said.
He said all talk about pork
barrel funds "is useless un-
\t
4rAtu xle N€t.rts'/
I
see the whlle pic- abandoned some conditions authors.
ture." i
"The FIouse con ferees
he had set for the bicam
talks, like requiring Diokno
What it disclosed was
a listing of members with
have demanded to see the to submit a report on sav- huge infrastructure alloca-
lump-sum savings of the ihgs and unused funds for tions under the ori gi n al
DBM (Department of Budget 20'1.7 and 2018, and compel- budget proposal submitted
and Managemeni) for 2018. ling senators to reveal their by President Du te rte to
We knew from the beginning budget insertions, location Congress in July. Former
it would not be granted, for of projects and their propo- speaker Pantaleon Alvarez
that is where the DBM pork nents, which the latter have topped that list with more
lies. Documents in our pos- resisted. than P8 billion.
session show thal for 20'1.7, So far, only Lacson and "I think the framework
a total of P370 billion was Sens. Ralph Recto and Le- of an agreement is there. lt's
generated in savings. This garda have admitted to pro- tust the cooperation of the
'amount was at the full dis- posing insertions. executive, specifically the
posal of Secretary (Benjamin) Lacson said he proposed DBM, that we're waiting for
Diokno," he said. "institutional amendments," now. It can be'done even this
He added the amount of or those submitted by agen- evening," Andaya told The
2018 savings could be higher. cies, including more than P4 Chiefs show on Monday.
The House leader added billion for an anti-terrorism He said lawmakers would
that Diokno has at his dis- Army battalion. have to approve the budget
posal funds that are "more Recto said his proposed "painfully." even with Dio-
than enough to sway the out- changes included billions kno's alleged refusal to help.
come of the 2019 elections, if for the universal health care He said he could live with
he wants to." program, while among Le- having the budget proposal
The Senate and House garda's realignments are for passed without several issues
panels in the budget confer- Antique, where she is seek- being resolved.
ence have tasked Andaya and . ing a congressional seat in He added that the House
Legarda to resolve their dis- the Mav elections. could siill attend to tlrose
putes on the proposed outlay. The house for its part has concerns by exercising its
The two lead conferees are not released the final list of oversight function du ri ng
scheduled to meet again this budget insertions it made the long election campaign
morning. when it approved its ver- recess.
Andaya has apparently sion of the budget and their - With Alexis Romero
(u?