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malayanews@yahoo.com
Budget b la
BY WENDELL VIGILIA
and ataYMot{D aFnlcA
THE House leadership yesterday
accused the Senate leadership
of ctippling the administtation's
Build, Build, Build program be-
cause of its continued refusal to
sign the proposed P3.757-trillion
national budget for 2019.
Rep. Rolando AndayaJr. (PDP-.
Laban, Camarines Sur), chak of
*re House committee on appro-
priations, said the Senate made a
"unilateral" decision to remove
P17 billion for the riglrt-of-way
(ROV) tunding of BBB projects.
This, he said, may Stall inftastruc
ture spending.and not the House's
line-item budgeting which is being
questioned by the Senate,
Andaya issued the statement
amid an impasse between the
Senate and the House over the
proposed 2019 budget, brought
about by accusations and countet-
accusations of altering the budget.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, chair-
man of the Senate's committee
oh accounts, last week said he
warned Ptesident Duterte about
the House's tealignment of some
P72 billion allotted to the De
partment of Public rVotks and
Highlvays for the BBB progtam
when it itemized lump sums after
www.malaya.com.ph
I
the ratification of
the bicameral
conference committqp repoft on
the.budget last Febru{ry 8.
Lacson made the warnipg dur-
iog a dinner-meeting called by.
President Duterte in Malacaiang,
atteoded by Senate and Hquse
leaden.
Yesterday, Lacsol said the
House is fooling the people by
claiming it merely itemized at least
P95.1 billion in the proposed bud-
get when it actuall-y realigned tlre
arnount to favored districtp,
"National budget: Don't be
fooled by congtessmen tasked
to make us believe they merely
'itemizgd'when in fact, they atbi-
\flpz,ot tUr n/eu)e a
(1)
trarily realigned to favored districts
several appropriations already
approved by both houses of Con-
gress, thereby sacrificing already
vettqd infra projects," Lacson said
in a post q! his Twittet account
on Saturday.
"Irying to hide their unconsti-
tutional post-ratification budget
tealignments by claiming they
warted to itemize lump sums in the
name of transpatency: If *rat's not
i.rony - or hlpocrisy, I don't know
vhat is," he added.
Andaya asked dre Senate r,vere
.the realigned funds went.
He said the Senate removed P12
billion ftom the Departr.nent of
MONDAY, MARCH
PubLic Works and Highways and
P5 billion from the Depatment
of Transportation "rrithout the
knowledge of and consent from
the Houseof Representatives."
He said se[ators have yet to
inform congtessmen where they
realigned the right-o f-way funds
which were taken out of the Na-
tional Expendin:re Program.
"So where did these funds really
go? Up to this very moment, the
senators ate also silent on who are
the individual proponents for their
realignments. These rcalignments
were made after both chambers
ratified the bicameral conference
committee repott on the 2019
dFYr PAq€ 1Qd,.4
18,2019
national budget," he said.
Arrdaya utged seoaton "to spcak
up on this issue (because) thc tax-
paying public deserves to know
where the! money will be spent,"
Andaya, formetmajority lcader,
said the Senatei rgmowl of the
P17 billion wotth of righr-t-rf-
way funding "will be tlrc greatcst
stumbling block for the Pre$dent's
infrastructure master plan."
"Every single centavo allocated
for infrastructure projects were
accouoted for, line by line fot each
project per district, in the 2019
General Appropriations Bill On
See BUDGET ) Page 85
I
 BUDGET
the conttary tle Senate's removal
oi^P17 billion wonh of right-of-
sar firndhg will be the greatest
stumbling block for the Presidentt
infrastructure master plan," An-
dar a said,
"Hou- can projects be started
*ithout rlese right-of way-pay-
ments? Billions of pesos worth of
roads nill never begin coflstuction
eleo if rhese projects are fully
fuoded.' he added,
SOTTOBIAMED
Ilajority leadet Fred Castro
blamed Senate Presideot Vicente
'?to" Sotto III fot the delay in the
approval of the 2019 budget for
lefusbg to srgn rhe copy transmit-
ted by the House.
"Speaker GMA (Gloria Maca-
pagal-Arroyo) has been ally of
Presidenr Duterte right from the
starc. So who! obsrructing rhe
budget's passage? The Spiaker
signed it lasrweek and only isenate
President) Tito Sotto! signature
is missing because he! refusing ro
slgn it. Now tell me who,s rhe one
blocking it and putting the whole
country at a disadvantage,,, he said
ln a statement,
Sotto has been urging House
members to tecall amendments
they made after the bicameral com-
mittee passed the budget bill on
February 8 and just ler Ptesidenr
Dutefte use his veto power over
the lump sum allocations.
' The House, however, warned
senators rhat removing itemized
budgeting will only reitore huqe
allocations to a few favored meri-
bers of Congress, sayilg thar the
line-item budgeting adopied by the
House is more transparent while
lump-s9m budgeting is ptone to
colfnPttoo.
DIFFER3NT PICTURE
Sotto yesterday said members of
the House of Represenatives uTho
tinketed wirh the ratified orooosed
budger are painting of *iat'realy
happened.
He stood firm on his oosition
that he rvill not sign the'version
of the General d"pplepriarions
BiX (GAB) which Speak'er Gloria
Arroyo and her allies messed with.
RE.ENACTED BUDGET
UNTIL DECEMBER
Sotto reit€rated govetnmeot
may have to run on a re-enacted
+€Aaui/€
({,/
budger until August in rhe hope
that the new House leadership
vill revert to the origrnal GAB. If
not, the govemment w.ill tun on a
re-enacted budget until De cember.
Lacson lashed out at the House,s
"talking heads" for insisting that
introducing amendments aftef
the bicameral approval ,.was for
itemization."
He said the redity is that the
House "tealigned" sevetal items,
which he said "do not at ail reflect
tlle agreed provisions incorporated
in the bicameral repot."
He said there is a big difference
between "itemDing," which is to
present as a listof individual items,
and 'tea{!{ng" which he said is to
change or restore to a differeb I stak.
INCREASE
Figues trom the Senatet I-eeis-
lative Budget Research and Mo'ni-
toring Office (-BRMO) showed
a net increase of P95.1 biUion in
the House of Reptesentatives'
realigflments.
This includes the slashing of
P72.319 billion from the -De-
partment of Public Wotks and
Hrghways' major final output
(I,[FO) 1 and 2.
AJsq t}te House rearranged or
Melt,stl
tealigned P79.7 billion from several
congtessional districts to the other
districts, and parked P70 billion
in the DPWH cenrral of6ce aftef'
removing tlem fiom 87 district
engineering ofFces,
"Parking the P70 billion in the
DP!7H's central of6ce was meant to
make it difficult for people - iodud-
ing mlself - to trace whete it vill
go You could call it a veiled effort
to conceal large 'pork insertions' of
some congressmen," Lacson said.
Eadier this month, I-acson dis-
closed post-nti6cation maneuvef-
ing of funds in the budget by the
House leadership, which he said
is a violation of the Constitution.
The post-ratification tweaks, he
said, were made in the funds of
Department of Health's Health
Faciliries Eohancement Program,
where Arroyoi allies got P25 mil-
Iion while *rose who did .r.,r *'.'..
fot het got just P8 milJion. Lacson
said he got his information from
House membets who loticed the
discrepancy.
On Duterte's BBB legacy pto-
gmm, the House slashed P72.3 bil-
lioo &om the DPYr./Ht MFO (major
6na.l outputs) I and 2. The DPWH
projecrs affected by the slashing
include those had been planned and
vetted for months, or eveq years. ,