Senate stand on budget will restore ‘pork’ of DBM former House leaders, warns Andaya
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2019 06:45:53 +0000
THE proposal of the Senate to retain the lump sum appropriations will only restore insertions by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), as well as those made by former leaders of the House of Representatives, a lawmaker warned on Thursday.
Rep. Rolando Andaya, chairman of the House appropriations committee, made the statement after Congress failed to reach a consensus on the P3.757-trillion national budget during a meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte in Malacanang on Tuesday.
During the meeting on Tuesday evening, House leaders said the proposal of Sen. Panfilo Lacson to retain the lump sum appropriations “did not sit well” with the President, as he did not want to be involved in allocating projects himself.
Lacson, however, was quick to defend this, clarifying that his suggestion was, in fact, “favorably endorsed” to Duterte as a logical way to break the impasse.
While the senators are firm on lump-sum budgeting, the House remains equally strong in its conviction to push for a budget with itemized programs for certain projects.
“Why are the senators so afraid of line-item budgeting, with itemized programs and projects written in the national budget for all the people to see? The House position is clear: We want a budget with the hallmarks of transparency and accountability,” Andaya said.
“If the senators will remain steadfast in defending the lump-sum funds, this practice will remain and only the favored districts will get their share of the taxpayers’ money. While we aim for an equitable distribution among districts, the Senate obviously wants to restore a budget that is unfair and lopsided,” he said.
The House, led by Andaya, sought an investigation into the alleged insertions by the DBM under the leadership of then Budget secretary Benjamin Diokno into the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for 2019, a portion of which allegedly favored his daughter’s in-laws.
Andaya in December revealed that former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, former Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, and former appropriations committee chairman Karlo Nograles got the biggest allocations for projects in their congressional districts for DPWH projects amounting to P5 billion, P3.5 billion, and P4 billion, respectively.
Alvarez represents 1st District of Davao del Norte, Farinas represents 1st District of Ilocos Norte, and Nograles represents 1st District of Davao City.
Lacson had called on Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Andaya to justify alleged last-minute insertions in their districts in Pampanga and Camarines Sur worth P2.4 billion and P1.9 billion, respectively. GLEE JALEA
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