Senate President Vicente Sotto III vowed to block the transmittal of the P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019 to the Palace if it can be proved that some congressmen made “pork” insertions into the version already ratified by the bicameral conference committee.
Reacting to Senator Panfilo Lacson’s allegations that such insertions were made, Sotto said this would be a violation of the Constitution and the legislative process.
Nobody, he said, could add or subtract or otherwise change the budget approved by the bicameral conference committee and ratified by both houses of Congress.
The signatures of the Senate president and the House speaker are needed in all proposed measures approved by Congress before they are sent to Malacañang for the President’s signature.
Earlier, Lacson said some congressmen made insertions into the budget even after it was ratified by both the House and the Senate.
He said this is the reason the proposed budget remains in the Senate and has not yet been transmitted to Malacañang.
He said these congressmen, whom he did not name, violated the Constitution and described them as “shameless.”
“We will not agree. The approved budget by the bicam should stay,” Sotto said Monday.
“The Legislative Budget, Research and Monitoring Office [LBRMO] will kmow if that happened, and I will know what to do. I’ll coordinate with Ping [Lacson] and [Senator] Loren [Legarda] on my strategy.”
In a text message on Monday, Lacson said he was assured by Senate finance committee chairman Legarda that she would present any changes found by the LBRMO to the other senators.