MANILA – Opposition Sen. Leader Franklin Drilon slammed 1PACMAN party-list Rep. Mikee Romero for blaming the Senate on issues hounding the country’s hosting of the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
Romero earlier claimed the Senate was to be blamed for supposedly holding back the passage of the 2019 national budget that hampered hosting preparations.
Drilon then called Romero’s comments “an insult,” saying his accusations are “misplaced and baseless.”
“The delay in the passage of the 2019 national budget was caused by unconstitutional insertions blatantly made by the House of Representatives in the budget to the tune of P95.3 billion worth of pork barrel funds,” the Ilonggo senator said.
“Kung mayroong delay e dahil sa kanila,” Drilon said.
The seasoned lawmaker noted that it is impossible for the opposition senators to cause the delay in passage of the national budget since there were only three of them in the Senate.
“There are only three opposition members in the Senate and we could not have stopped the passage of the budget,” he said. “Even if the budget was delayed, most of the funds used for the SEA Games infrastructure were from separate loans.”
“To refresh Mr. Romero’s memory, had it not been for the solution or compromise that I proposed, which enabled Senate President Vicente Sotto to sign and send the 2019 budget to Malacañang, we would not have resolved the 2019 budget impasse and we would have continued on a reenacted budget,” Drilon went on.
Cayetano and Romero, in separate statements on Monday, said the issues in the SEA Games could have been avoided had the Senate approved the budget for the sports event.
“It was Sen. Drilon who moved the budget of the SEA Games to the PSC (Philippine Sports Commission) and it was Sen. Drilon who proposed cutting it by 33% only a few months before [to] P2.5 million pero siya ang nagli-lead ng criticism, Cayetano said.
“Siyempre nandoon ako sa Senate, alangan namang magbastusan kami. So nakukuwento ko lang ‘yan in context that we need better communication,” he added./PN
