Sen. Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson said yesterday former President now House Speaker Gloria M. Arroyo could be held criminally liable for signing the version of the 2019 budget which contained post-ratification amendments by the House of Representatives.
“Since Speaker Arroyo already signed the HoR version of the enrolled bill, she’s already prone to being charged for falsification because she’s already certified something that did not take place,” Lacson said.
The senator was first to expose the realignments made by the House on the P3.757-trillion proposed 2019 national budget after its ratification by both houses of Congress last Feb. 8.
Congressmen did not deny this, but said they were merely itemizing the lump sum appropriations that are supposedly in the budget bill.
Lacson insisted that the post-bicameral itemization would violate the Constitution and other laws, appealing to their counterpart to spare the Senate from such an “illegal” act.
He added that his colleagues would not allow Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III to violate the Constitution and commit the crime of falsification. “Ang House, huwag nila kami pilitin mag-violate ng Constitution. Huwag kami isama. Kung gusto nila mag-violate,” he said.
Arroyo, he noted, already violated laws for certifying the falsified enrolled copy of the 2019 budget sent by the House to the Senate.
“She already signed. Hindi consummated ang General Appropriations Act but the act of signing a falsified document is already consummated. So any taxpayer can go to the Ombudsman or Department of Justice to file a criminal complaint against her for falsification,” Lacson explained. (Vanne Terrazola)