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WEDNESDAY March 13, 2019

Lacson's obsession
with GMA bad
for his and
Congress' prestige
$i j:
, filo Lac-
, son .lu!I
' cant stop
his un-
dent, now House Speaker Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo.
He is damaging not only his pres_
tige and credibiliry as the senator
whose adnrirable crusade against lhe
pork barrel sysrern srlned during rhe
Cory Aquino adninisrrarion
FTiglar.rA5

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Lacson's obsession with GMA

bad for his and Congress'prestige
layed, governmer,rt would have Man enough
Just to have a last pinch
- the submitted to President Duterte
Pilipino word J<urot is more' for signing into law.' to use the 2018 one, which of
precise before Arroyo re- What the House simply did, course doesn't aruthorize the use Was Lacson man enough to admit
tires from
- Congress, Lacson is which Lacson misinterpreted offunds for su,ch laws passed re- he got his facts wong, perhaps
deliberately or not fed with wrong information by an
portraying the Senate and the
-itemize - was to cently as those.directing universal
House of Representatives as the 2019 allocation for healthcare, sr:Lbsidies to farmers overeager researche! and which he
cheating gangs trying to hood- the Health department's Health under the Ri r:e Tariffication Law, was too busy to fact-check?
wink each other by changing Facilities Enhancement Program and increasrrng the capital ofthe No. lacson even had the gall to
the provisions of the budget (HEEP). This in fact ensures Bangko Se ntral ng Pilipinas. send a letter to this paper, siSned
bill they had already agreed on: that the disfiicts requiring such In his al,legations that the allo- by his incompetent media officer
He claimed the other day, as facilities get the budget for their cations f(jr the HEEP were bigger (since he must have felt that replying
the fanatic Arroyo-basher pa- program. Such itemization in fact for Arro yo's allies, did he make a himself to a columnist was below
per Philippine Daily Inquirer is a practice, after the bigger bud- list of rluch "allies"? No. He iust his stature), published with the
reported it, that the Speaker get allocations are agreed upon, made a blanket assertion. title "senator hcson seel6 to setthe
"unlawfully funneled nearly P95 and the Senate itselfrecently gave record straight' (Dec. 22, 2018).
billion in infrastructure funds 'the House such itemization for All iies Did he present a list ofalloca-
to the districts of her allies in certain budgets. tions for each district to prove his
the House after Congress had Why is Lacson confusing the Hr': probably saw a budget for allegation that Aroyo's 2nd dis-
ratified the final version of the country on this cmcial budget bill? known Arroyo allies and
sr.'3v€ral trict ofPampanga had the biggest
P3.8-trillion budget for 2019." Is he still blaming Arroyo for j umped to the conclusion that all allocations in the 2019 budgetl
As that paper further quoted Manila Regional Trial Court )udge Arroyo allies got bigger budgets. No. He didn't even touch on
him, "Lacson said A oyo's acts Myra Garcia-Fernandez's order Did he include as "GMA allies" his allegations against Aroyo,
clearly violated the 2013 Suprcme to arrest him nine years ago for. such representatives as those and merely made the prose
Court ruling that stuck down as the November 2000 killings of. from Mindanao, who are allies equivalent .of mumbling gen-
unconstitutional the pork barrel publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dar:e:r not iust ofArroyo but Duterte? eralities incomprehensible to
system and lhe lump-s[m apprc- and his driver Emmaluel Corbi to, {acson also made last De- readers, for example, that he
priations for lawmakers." which made him live the hanl life cember a similar leap to a false merely "questioned not only the
of a fugitive for 15 months? conclusion, without providing ballooning of allocations for
Straw-man data, iust to blacken Arroyo's infrastructure in some legisla-
Vendetta reputation. He announced, also tive districts, but also the Tulong
That's a classic straw-man ar- through his favorite newspaper Dunongprogram.. (blah-blah).'
gument, and the reality in the Indeed, Lacson, as Deputy Mi- the PDt that the infrastructure tn his letter Lacson claimed
2019 budget is in fact the oppo- nority Leader and Co,op-Natco allocations for the 2019 budget that "he already made clear he
site. The old pork'barrel system party-list Rep. Anthony Bravo for Arroyo's Pampanga congres- has made peace with Mrs. Arroyo,
struck down by the Supreme claimed on Monday, is "holding sional district are among the and that he has forgiven those
Court referred to the practice hostage" the propos,ed 2019 na- largest for 2019. who wonged him."
of congressmen directing where tional budget becaurse ofhis "per- That was of course patently That's a bit hard to believe.
government funds allocated by sonal vendetta" agiainst Arioyo. false, and the data to show that it now with his second false ac-
the budget are to be used. In the Or does Lacsori simply want is a canard was available to any- cusation against Arroyo in just a
budget prepared by the Arroyo- to discredit Arro'yo in the eyes of body wanting to see it. In terms few months' time.
led House, where and how these President Duterte who has made of ranking by size of allocations Move on Senator Lacson. For
firnds are to be used are listed her his key all.r7 3 for a congressman's district, Ar- the country's sake.
in some detail. For whaterrer reason, the real- royo's is in the 100th slot in a list Disdosurs I was Anoyo's Presi.
Lacson's claim is as patently ity is that a,ccusations such as of 194 representatives. dential Spokesman and ChiefofStaff
absurd, as a claim, for instance, that of Lacs,on's could delay the I debunked tacsorls claims and ftom in the first halfofher presidency
that the President signed a Con- approval r.)f the 2019 budget, er€n presented data io show how and then Ambasador to Grcece and
gress bill that was changed with- which n.q,16n11y should have relatively small the allocations were qprus ftom 2005 to 2010.
out the House and the Senate's been sig;'rred into law in Novem- for Anoyo's distdd (P1.4 billion)
express permission. The House ber, fcrr: implementation last compared to those for the districrs Email : ti gl a o. m anilati mes @
and the Senate, after the bicam- |anuary. The Senate is a gang, of 99 other congressman, among gmail.com
eral committee on the budget whic'|l. gives full play to a mem- them |oey Salceda (P5.7 billion) Faceb o ok: Ngobeno Tigl ao
signed off on it, approved on berrs concerns, even if false. and even anti-Euterte congressman Twittei: @bobitiglao l

February 18 the budgetbill to be A'rrd if fie 2019 budget is de- Edcel Lagman (P3.5 billion). tudtiw at wwwigofutaigln am
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