Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Sunday warned the public against falling for the House leaders’ claim that their decision to itemize the lump-sum allotments in…
Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Sunday warned the public against falling for the House leaders’ claim that their decision to itemize the lump-sum allotments in the long-delayed P3.8-trillion budget for 2019 was meant to ensure “transparency.”
Lacson, who had taken to task Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her supporters in the House of Representatives for tinkering with the ratified spending bill, dismissed their claim as “hypocrisy” and described it as “revolting.”
He said it was clear that the allocations for the pet projects of Arroyo and her allies suddenly increased by P95.1 billion after they manipulated the proposed national budget after its final version was adopted by Congress on Feb. 8.
“Don’t be fooled by congressmen tasked to make us believe they merely ‘itemized’ when in fact, they arbitrarily realigned to favored districts several appropriations already approved by… Congress thereby sacrificing already vetted [government] projects,” Lacson said in a Twitter post.
Unconstitutional
“Trying to hide their unconstitutional postratification budget realignments by claiming they wanted to itemize lump sums in the name of transparency. If that’s not irony—or hypocrisy—I don’t know what is,” he said.
The senator, known for his crusade against the pork barrel system, reiterated that itemization, or the listing of “individual items” in the draft budget, was different from realignment, “which is to change or restore [the funds] to a different [use].
