Kabayan party-list Rep. Ron Salo on Sunday asked Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri to refrain from saying one thing and mean something else while claiming no ill will toward Congress contingent to the bicameral conference panel.
He said Zubiri’s remarks had disparaged his peers in the bigger chamber and the consolidated version of the Bayanihan to Recover as One bill Bayanihan 2.
He rejected Zubiri’s defense that the senator-panelist comment was “pure advocacy” and “no personal motives” in the bicam talks.
“Zubiri must be in dreamland during the Senate’s Thursday plenary when he unabashedly claims now that he didn’t have any disparaging remarks about the Senate’s House counterparts in the bicam panel and had even defended the congressmen because there was a howl of protest from Senator Pia Cayetano who didn’t find funny the comments made by Zubiri and certain other senators about their peers in the House,” he said.
Cayetano called the attention of her colleagues for insinuating that the House had an ulterior motive in proposing the P10-billion infrastructure fund for the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority in the Bayanihan 2 bill.
“So what in heaven’s name did Senator Cayetano gripe about if Senator Zubiri’s rebuttal that he didn’t denigrate the House panelists in the bicam committee—and had in fact even defended them—were true as he now claims?” he asked.
“Given the high multiplier impact of infrastructure investments on the economy, infrastructure spending would immediately stimulate growth, create jobs and therefore boost consumer confidence, leading to a rebound in household consumption, which has largely fueled the Philippine economy” he said.
“What the industry needs right now are jobs for many of the 5.7 million tourism industry workers who have lost their jobs temporarily or permanently because of the global economic slump wrought by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. And such a myriad of instant jobs would come only from infrastructure investments,” he added.