The Senate ratified yesterday afternoon the bicameral conference committee report on the P4.1-trillion national budget for 2020.
Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on finance and sponsor of the measure, said the measure would be transmitted as soon as possible to Malacañang for President Duterte’s signature.
Earlier in the day, members of the bicameral conference committee signed and adopted the report during a meeting at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City. Senators present during the meeting were Angara, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, and Senators Christopher “Bong” Go, Cynthia Villar, Richard Gordon, Imelda “Imee” Marcos, Maria Lourdes Nancy Binay, Sherwin Gatchalian, Joel Villanueva, Grace Poe, and Francis Pangilinan.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and Senators Pia Cayetano and Panfilo “Ping” Lacson were not present during the bicam meeting.
Lacson had earlier expressed his opposition to the ratification of the bicameral conference committee report on the budget, saying he found it riddled again with “pork” insertions amounting to P83 billion.
According to Lacson, his office received a copy from the House of Representative a USB containing two files which indicate another last minute insertions made by members of the House.
“Bad habits are indeed hard to break…We cannot ascertain if indeed only P16.345 billion or the bigger amount of P83.219 billion was inserted at the last minute prior to the bicam signing. What is clear though is that there are still lump sums and vaguely described projects that are now part of the bicam report,” Lacson lamented.
“Thus, we will continue to diligently scrutinize it and inform DBM (Department of Budget and Management) and the office of the President as I have high hopes that PRRD (President Duterte’s initials) will again display his aversion to corruption.”
“Pork is here to stay. I hope the President will again exercise his political will in vetoing line items that will obviously waste people’s tax money. It is revolting to note that legislators keep on dipping their dirty fingers on our national budget in spite of pending cases involving the same issue,” he said. (Hannah Torregoza)