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KBUDGET FROM A1
Veto'pork'in
"Mr President, you have displayed
yourstrong political will on several
occasions. This timg useyour line-
item veto power over the 2019 ap-
propriations measure by removing
all the "pork" inseted by lawmak-
ers who are incorrigibly insatiable
and simply beyond redemption."
Under the 1987 Constitution,
the President 1'shall have the power
to veto any paticular item or items
in an appropriation, r€venue, or
tariff bill, but the veto shall not
affect the item or items to which
.he does not object."
Lacson issued the call amid
rcports that senators and congress-
men, sittingin a bicarneral confer-
ence committee, have agreed on a
consolidated version of the 2019
budget bill, and would have it
ratifi ed today, Wednesday.
Lacson earlier said that lawmak-
ers abused their legislative powers
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Veto'pork'in
2019 budget
SEN. Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday urged president
!.odrigo Duterte to use his line-item veto power and
strip the P3.757-trillion 2019 budget bill of,pork.,,
. In a post on his Twitler account, Lacson said:
201 9 budget
by inserting billions of pesos
wonh of pork barrel allocations
in the 2019 budget bill.
He claimed that each congress-
man would have at least Pl60-
million "pork" allocation in rhe
Depanment of Public Works and
Highways (DPWH) budset.
One ot more senators made
P3.3-billion in budget inser-
tions for one province alone, he
claimed. The amount was paft of
th€ P23 billion that Lacson said
some senators had inserted in the
budget of DPWH alone.
"The biggest is P3.3 billion,"
l,acson said, adding that such
projects might involve more than
one s€nator "but are lumped in
just one province."
Projects include flood contol
structures, national ahd local
roads, water management, multi-
purpose facilities, bridges, feasibil-
o
fpootr
WEDNESDAY February 6, 201 9
H:
}.B*dg*rA2
ity studies and road right-ofway.
On Monday, the bicameral
panel agreed to remove all fund
insertions for flood control and
drainage projects in the budget
bill to expedite the passage ofthe
national budget. A smaller bicam
was formed to fine-tune budget
amendments.
The government is operating
under a reenacted 2018 budget
after the House and Senate failed
to approve the 2019 budget last
year. Congress will adjourn ses-
sions anew February 8 to May 19
to give way for the campaign and
elections period.
'Useless talk'
House appropriations chief Rep.
Rolando Andaya |r, head of the
House contingentto the bicameral
deliberations, said Congress would
stick to the target of approving the
reconciled version of the 2019
General Appropriations Act on
Wednesday, but insisted that all
"talk ofpork" was useless.
This was unless the Depart-
ment of Budget and Manage-
ment (DBM) submitted irs sav-
ings report for 2018, which
Andaya claimed was Budget
Secretary Ben jamin Diokno's
own fork "kitty. "
"The House conferees have
demanded to see the lump-surn
savings ofthe DBM for 2018. We
knew from the beginning it would
not be granted, for that is wh€e
the DBM pbrk lies," he said in a
statement on Tuesday.
"Documents in our possession
show that for 2017, a total of
P370 billion was generated in
savings. This amount was at the
full disposal ofDiokno, " Andaya
added, claiming that the amount
for the agency's budgetary sav-
ings in 2018 was higher.
JAVIER JOE ISMAEL
AND GLEE JALEA