THuRSDAY / FEBRUARY 7,2019
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Yesitl to Du3oto purge
budget of porl$ Sotto backs call
By Marlon Ramos
@MRamoslNQ
It's up to President Duterte to
purge his P3.8-tri[ion national
budget for 2019 of pork, Sen.
Ping Lacson said on Wednesday.
Lacson urged the President
on Tuesday to use his veto
power to rid the budget of bil-
lions of pesos in pork that "in-
corrigibly insatiable" congress-
men insisted on embedding in
the draft spending bill.
There was no response
from Mr. Duterte as of Wednes-
day.
A Senate-House conference
committee was working against
the clock to hammer out a final
version ofthe budget bill whose
approval last year was delayed
by a quarrel over pork and the
addition of P75 billion in unre-
quested funds to the budget of
the Department of Public Works
and Highways.
Pr6oB for each congressman
Lacson discovered P16o
billion in pork for every mem-
ber of the House of Represen-
tatives, which he did uot be-
lieve the congressmen would
give up.
senators added to the prob-
lem, introducing Pz3 billion in
i'individual amendments" to
the budget proposal.
Lacson said he would defer
to Mr. Duterte's discretion on
how to clean up the budget.
Asked if he would submit
to the President a list showing
the pork in the.spending bill,
Lacson said: "They are al-
ready there. The details are
there."
Passion, frustration
"That's his sole authority
under the Constitution. It's ipino taxpayers' hard-earned
not for me to barge in there money will not flow into the
(Malacanang) and advise him deep pockets of the corrupt
to veto lthe pork allotments],"
he said.
"I will not do that. But
there's really pork there. It's
up to the DBM (Department of
Budget and Management) and
Malacaiang to determine,"
he added.
"call it passion, exaspera-
tion, frustration [and] even
desperation. I'll do whatever it
takes to ensure that the Fil-
i
Vicente Sotto lll
few," Lacson said.
Sotto support
Senate President Vlcente
Sotto III voiced support for
Lacson's suggestion, saying the
President should remove pork
from the expenditure bill if it
couldbe proved that the appro-
priations were illegal.
"If it is necessary and it's
clear that they're pork, then
\ PAqn -At/'
Ping Lacson
why not? It should be vetoed,"
Sotto said.
"At this point, we're really
not sure if they are pork or not.
what we know in the senate
are the institutional amend-
ments," he said.
Sotto said the senators
would meet on Friday to ratify
the final version of the confer-
ence committee report that
Sen. Loren Legarda, chair of
the Senate finance committee,
and her counterpart in the
House, Camarines Sur Rep.
Rolando Andaya Jr., prepared
for its approval.
Both the Senate and the
House concluded tleir regular
session on Wednesday and broke
up for athree-molth recess.
Legarda on Monday said
she was expecting ttle draft re-
port to be submitted to the
Senate on Wednesday, in time
for ratification on Friday.
,
Initial conference committee
But Lacson said the Senate
had yet to receive the initial
conference committee report
as of 6 p.m. onwednesday.
According to Lacson, he and
his colleagues were firm in
their stand that they must
closely examine the draft to
check if the questionable items
in the proposed budget had al-
ready been deleted before sign-
ing the document.
'That's my manifestation.
. We cannot treat it as business
as usual, that we will just sign
the bicameral report without
reading it," he said.
"We want to see filst if what
we hadr discussed was fol-
lowed," tle added. tNq
I