MANILA – Instead of diverting the public from the issue at hand, Senate President Vicente Sotto III should just reveal the names of the senators who made budget cuts in the proposed 2019 national budget for infrastructure and social programs and explain where these items went.
House Committee on Appropriations chair Rolando Andaya Jr. made such remark on Tuesday in response to Sotto’s statement that the former’s accusations about the Senate “sabotaging” priority programs of the government were his “last ditch” effort to obfuscate the issue and try to prevent the President’s veto of the illegal realignments.
In a statement, Andaya said that instead of answering the allegation on point, Sotto resorted to “name calling” and “language engineering” to divert the public attention from the budget cuts of the Senate in the Duterte administration’s infrastructure and social programs.
Among these items taken out by the Senate from the 2019 General Appropriations Bill, according to Andaya, include P5 billion from the Department of Transportation for right-of-way projects, P11.033 billion from the Department of Public Works and Highways also for right-of-way projects, and P2.5 billion under the same department of foreign-assisted projects.
Other items removed by the Senate include the allocation for rebel returnees, budget for the National Greening Program, and those for the payment for the pension of AFP retirees, Andaya added.
“The Senate President need not consult the dictionary in search of more pompous words. All he has to do is explain to the public why the Senate slashed the budget not only of Build, Build, Build projects, but also of pension for uniformed personnel and retirement benefits of government employees,” Andaya said.
“Now is also the time for him to reveal the names of all senators who made budget cuts and show the items where these were realigned,” he added.
‘Delusional’
Reached for his reaction, Senate President Vicente Sotto III called as delusional those saying that the chamber has yet to make a public report of the proponents of the cuts and realignments made by the Senate in the 2019 budget.
“Delusional na yata. It’s their last ditch effort to influence the President not to veto their illegal realignments,” Sotto said in a message to reporters.
He reiterated that one only needs to read the journal of the Senate to know who proposed the cuts and realignments.
“Read the Senate journal during the period of interpellation. We do ours on the floor. And we did it before the bicameral conference committee meeting and ratification. Not after ratification, that’s illegal,” he said.
He further said the accusers of the Senate can “invent all they want, we will correct everything once they are gone.”
It was only last week that the 2019 budget bill was submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte for signing and approval.
Sotto, however, said he had “strong reservations” in the budget bill, and urged the President to veto its “unconstitutional” provisions.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson earlier admitted he was the main proponent of most of the cuts “which I did only upon the requests or concurrence of the agencies.”
“When I introduced to cut P75 billion after DPWH admitted not to be aware of the additional appropriations and therefore not prepared to implement the projects; another P20 billion in ROW funding which the agency itself requested to be slashed after admitting that they cannot utilize the same in 2019; P16 billion from the DILG’s financial assistance to LGU’s under ALGU which they said they knew nothing about etc, I found out that at least P23 billion was realigned at the initiative of a number of my colleagues,” Lacson said Monday.
He added other realignments were used to augment the much depleted Hospital Facilities Enhance Program; the activation of the Army’s 11th Infantry Division upon the direction of the President; adjustments or the purchase of medicines by the Veterans Memorial Medical Center due to the increase in the price index of medicines, and other institutional amendments, and therefore should not be regarded as pork. (GMA News)
