Citing the need for transparency, Senator Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday made public the details of the institutional amendments he proposed in the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019.
He expressed hope the other proponents of amendments to the budget would do the same to remove speculation that the bicameral conference committee was a venue for “horse trading” and compromises among legislators.
“In the spirit of transparency, I instructed my staff to make public all my amendments in the 2019 national budget,” Lacson said.
“I hope all proponents will do the same to remove all suspicions that the bicameral conference is a venue for sneaky horse-trading among legislators.”
Lacson made his statement even as Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, said Congress may not be able to pass the proposed budget this year before it adjourns on Feb. 6 after senators and congressmen had a hard time agreeing on the supposed insertions in the money measure.
Andaya said he would not want to betray the House leadership by having the budget bill approved without having scrutinized it thoroughly.
“The approval of the budget bill is being rushed so as to include the anomalies that were discovered in the 2018 [national] budget,” Andaya told lawmakers during the resumption of his panel’s probe on the P75-billion budget insertions and alleged anomalous budget practices involving Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno.
“I know where the places are. If I will be forced to do it, dared to do it…I will bring this House down. If they will pass the budget without thinking, I will bring everybody down. You know it; I know it.”
Lacson proposed institutional amendments to the budget to benefit sectors including education, the environment, and national security.
He said there was no room for “pork” in these institutional amendments for three reasons: need, planning, and vetting.
“Our taxpayers can thus sleep well knowing there is no room for pork with these institutional amendments,” Lacson said.
In the proposed budget for 2019, Lacson proposed institutional amendments that would benefit school children through the programs of the Department of Education.
He also proposed institutional amendments for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, including an increase in appropriations for the Environmental Management Bureau from P2.523 billion to P2.525 billion, with the P2.352-million increase to fund the monitoring and inventory of greenhouse gases of the pollution labs in the Visayas and Mindanao.
For the judiciary, Lacson proposed an increase in appropriations for the Supreme Court and lower courts by P920.669 million.
Earlier, Lacson said he proposed P4.78 billion to mobilize a new infantry unit to address the threat of terrorist groups including the Abu Sayyaf.
Lacson also sought an increase of P666.219 million in the Veterans Memorial Medical Center’s 2019 budget so it could acquire medicines for its patients.
He said the VMMC sought his help as he was defending the budget of the Department of National Defense, which supervises the hospital.
READ: Lacson’s P50-billion ‘insertion’ bared by House team
He also sought to increase the Pension and Gratuity Fund by P876.42 million to fund the additional P15,000 increase in old-age pension of 4,869 senior veterans. With Maricel V. Cruz
