Anakalusugan Party-list Rep. Mike Defensor on Friday appealed to senators to stop rumor-mongering on the national budget that the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading on Sept. 20.
READ: Palace to scrutinize budget for hidden ‘pork’
He said senators, especially Senator Panfilo Lacson and Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon should first scrutinize the proposed 2020 P4.1-trillion national budget before commenting on it.
“Rumor-mongering has no place in legislative work. We must first study the content of the national budget before we actually criticize it,” said Defensor.
“Peddling rumors are not the handiwork of esteemed senators,” he added.
The Palace’s proposed P4.1 trillion national budget is scheduled for transmittal to the Senate on Oct. 1 following its record time passage last week.
Deputy Speaker and Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, meanwhile, said Lacson’s fabricated allegations against congressional members looked on the surface to be a misunderstanding but is actually a political hatchet job meant to damage the House of Representatives.
Villafuerte said Lacson failed to be circumspect in brandishing allegations that turned out to be unsubstantiated because his personal agenda, it appears, is to make the Senate look good at the expense of the current House leadership.
Lacson earlier said that he will verify and validate information from his sources and later claimed he stands by them.
Lacson has accused House members of setting aside billions of pesos in pork barrel in the P4.1-trillion national budget.
Defensor joined Villafuerte in his appeal to senators to study the budget first and see for themselves that it is indeed a ‘no-pork’ budget.
“We passed the 2020 GAB strictly following the Speaker’s policy of ‘No Pork, No Parking, No Delay.’ We expect our colleagues in the Senate to adhere to the same principles,” Defensor said.
He added that senators may raise their objections to specific provision of the bill when the bicameral conference committee convenes in late November or early December.
“That is not only our traditional practice, but our constitutional duty to jointly reconcile differences in the bicameral conference level,” said Defensor.
During Thursday’s party-list coalition news forum, Deputy Majority Leader and Bagong Henerasyon party-list Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy and DIWA Party-list Rep. Michael Aglipay also joined calls for Lacson to apologize for his failure to present proof that the approved national budget contains pork barrel.
Herrera-Dy and Aglipay said it would be prudent for Lacson to apologize following his false allegation.
In other developments:
* Senator Juan Edgardo Angara filed a resolution to extend the validity of portions of the 2019 appropriations for maintenance and other operating expenses and capital outlays until December 2020. The House has filed a similar resolution to ensure projects that were not carried out because of delays in the passage of the 2019 budget would receive funding.
* An opposition leader in the House of Representatives urged Congress to ensure funding for public school teachers’ Annual Medical Examination and Treatment in the 2020 budget. Party-list Rep. France Castro said the government funding for medical exam and treatment for public school teachers is mandated under the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers, and should not be combined with the Universal Health Care that teachers contribute through the PhilHealth.
