Senate President Francis Escudero promised that the proposed national government budget for 2025 would no longer feature questionable “insertions.”
In an interview over radio DWIZ Saturday, Escudero also assured the budget will not contain ‘pork barrel’ or government funds for projects designed to please voters, which was declared by the Supreme Court (SC) as unconstitutional.
The Senate Finance committee chaired by Sen. Grace Poe will start the Senate deliberations of the P6.3-trillion national budget on Tuesday, August 13, 2024.
Escudero said when he was chairperson of the committee on finance in 2016, he strongly adhered to the SC decision. He noted that all the succeeding chairpersons of the committee also obeyed the SC ruling on pork.
The Senate chief said they also followed the SC prohibition on lawmakers’ interference in the post enactment to identify any project.