Filipinos are lucky to have Rodrigo Duterte as their president who does not fear being impeached by the House of Representatives after he vetoed early this year lawmakers’ P95 billion in pork barrel funds in the 2019 national budget, Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson said yesterday.
And Duterte is again placed in the same situation by the Senate leadership.
The Senate leadership led by Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III, Sen. Juan Edgardo M. Angara, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, and Lacson decided to burn the midnight oil to dissect the proposed 2020 P4.1-trillion national budget and identify the supposed P83-billion “pork barrel” funds that the House of Representatives supposedly inserted at the last minute in the bicameral budget committee report.
The list will be submitted to Duterte who may or may not veto the billions of pesos worth of pork barrel projects.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the bicameral committee report last Wednesday although Lacson belatedly learned the last minute insertion of the pork barrel in the Universal Series Bus in the committee report.
“Masuwerte tayo si PRRD may political will. Kasi wala akong nakitang Presidente before him na nag-veto ng ganoon kalaki, P95 billion. Ang iba matakot sa kongresista baka ma-impeach. Isipin mo ang veto mo puro proyekto ng kongresista…Tulad ng sinabi ko, diyan ko hinahangaan at sinasaluduhan si PRRD. Siya lang ang Pangulong sa pagkaalam ko na nakapag-veto ng ganoon kalaki, R95 billion na alam niyang proyekto ng mga kongresista,’’ he said.
“Pero at least itong Pangulo ngayon nakita natin kaya malaki ang pag-asa ko na pag pinagbigay alam ng aming SP sa kanya ang listahan ng mga ito na naman abuso na mga proyekto na alam nating walang kahihinatnan kundi puro sa kalokohan lang, malaki pag-asa natin na ive-veto niya uli ito dahil ginawa na niya last year,’’ he added.
Expressing his sentiment on the pesky pork barrel problem, Lacson said on Twitter: “We burn midnight oil to study the national budget from the National Expenditure Program all the way to the ratification of the bicameral report.’’
“For that reason alone, we cannot just sit down and leave the fate of our hard-earned tax money to abuse and greed,’’ he stressed. “It is a long, lonely crusade. It is difficult to measure the degree of success we have achieved for the past 18 years. I am not even sure if we are winning at all,’’ he added. (Mario Casayuran)
