Sen. Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson on Wednesday pressed his fight against the alleged “pork barrel” fund in the 2019 national budget, stopping short of identifying one of its biggest beneficiaries.
After flashing on a TV monitor at the Senate session hall a P2.242-billion pork barrel appropriation for a member of the House of Representatives, Lacson blurted out: “I don’t know who is from Lubao.”
Lacson made the claim during the start of the Senate plenary debate on the House-approved proposed 2019 P3.757-trillion budget.
“If it looks like pork, sounds like pork, and smells like pork, then it must be pork,” reiterated Lacson who earlier revealed that there is a total of P51.7 billion in pork barrel funds.
Lacson said lawmakers have abused their legislative powers as they enjoy the fruits of millions of pesos worth of pork barrel allocations.
He rues that his solitary quest to purge pork barrel allocations in the national budget year in and year out continued to receive strong denials from Sen. Loren B. Legarda as chairperson of the Senate Finance Committee. The same denial comes from the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
Aside from the pork barrel for the lawmaker from Lubao, Pampanga, Lacson also revealed that another House member was allotted P1.9 billion in pork barrel funds He, however, did not give a clue who was given this pork barrel fund.
In another instance, Lacson revealed that a lawmaker had a P500-million worth of farm-to-market projects in just one congressional district. Based on the House version, Lacson said the farm-to-market road project is located in Camarines Sur.
Senate President Vicente “Tito” C. Sotto III attempted to resolve the pork barrel issue by asking the Development Budget Coordinating Council to give its opinion on the issue. (Mario B. Casayuran)
