The Senate may hold its own investigation into the parking of pork barrel funds in the budgets for infrastructure projects, but it will wait for the House of Representatives to finish its probe, Senator Cynthia Villar said Monday.
READ: 2019 budget laden with ‘pork’—Ping
“Let the House investigate this, [and determine] how huge amount of funds were inserted, allegedly by the Department of Budget and Management,” she said.
Both House and Senate on Friday exposed a kickback scheme by certain lawmakers, where large amounts of funds are “parked” in a legislative district by well-connected congressmen.
Once it conducts a probe, the Senate would scrutinize the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways and ask officials to explain any questionable budget insertions.
In the House, Majority Leader and Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. said the owner of CT Leoncio Construction and Trading, which allegedly bagged millions in government contracts, would skip a scheduled hearing because of a trip to the United States.
Andaya, chairman of the House committee on rules, said his committee had prepared to subpoena Consolacion T. Leoncio and others involved to compel them to attend a hearing on Jan. 3, 2019 in Naga City.
He said he wanted to ask Leoncio how her company was able to win such huge government projects that were later subcontracted to other companies.
Earlier, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno denied knowing Leoncio or favoring her company.
Leoncio also denied that her company was a single proprietorship.
Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte dismissed as “absurd and baseless” the allegations against Diokno.
While going after Diokno, Andaya said he believed President Rodrigo Duterte had nothing to do with the alleged budget anomalies.
In an interview on GMA-7, Andaya said four more mayors from the Bicol region had informed him about the parking of at least P200 million in infrastructure projects in the 2019 budget by an unnamed Cabinet official.
Earlier, Andaya said a mayor from the same region had told him that a former Cabinet official running in the 2019 elections was doing the same thing.
“It’s not only the senators who are parking funds, but members of the Cabinet also have these kinds of parked funds,” Andaya said in Filipino. “This is what five mayors who I talked to personally said.”
He declined to mention any names, however.
READ: Napoles, Bong’s aide get life for ‘pork’ fund scam