THE Palace warned on Thursday that the President may veto those line items in the budget which he finds questionable.
This, after Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson Sr. revealed on Wednesday that a congresswoman and congressman allegedly got P2.4 billion and P1.9 billion in funding next year for their districts, respectively.
Asked if the President can use the line veto power for the questionable allocations in the budget, Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo said: “If he feels that it is in violation of the Constitution.”
He added, “The President can always use the veto power if he feels there is a need for that.”
Panelo explained that the President’s veto power means that he has the power to disapprove any bill passed in Congress.
Meanwhile, Panelo said he also wants to know the reason for the supposed realignment of funds.
Moreover, Budget Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said there should be no further delay if the President decides to exercise his line-item veto power.
“Under the Constitution, the President may exercise line-item veto power and still approve the GAA [General Appropriations Act]. There is no further delay, unless Congress by a three-fourths vote overrides the veto, an event that has not happened before,” Diokno said in a message sent to the BusinessMirror.
The money measure is now under scrutiny by senators, who are targeting to finish the budget deliberations by mid-December to avert the possibility of a reenacted budget.
According to Diokno, President Duterte and the past presidents have exercised this line-item veto power before.
He even recalled Duterte vetoing an item in the first package of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.
“The line-item veto power is a very potent [power] of a Philippine President. It is a significant tool for fiscal responsibility. The US President does not have such power,” he said.
On Wednesday Lacson even cited a P500-million allocation from the questionable P2.4-billion appropriation set aside for farm-to-market road projects alone.
Lacson said he obtained the list of projects from the budget documents transmitted to the Senate for the upcoming plenary deliberations on the 2019 budget.
Although Lacson did not directly name House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the congresswoman he was referring to, he showed a slide of a portion of the congresswoman’s identified projects with alleged insertions, including those in the municipalities of Lubao, Guagua and Porac in Pampanga.
These municipalities are all in the Second District of Pampanga represented by Arroyo.
The congressman was from Camarines Sur, Lacson said.
He also did not confirm if he is referring to Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr.