SEN. Panfilo M. Lacson Sr., parrying criticisms he was singling out leaders and members of the House of Representatives in baring multibillion-peso alleged pork barrel insertions in the proposed 2019 budget, on Sunday dared Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to set an example by “returning the money.”
Responding to House Majority Leader Rolando G. Andaya Jr.’s reaction that the senator’s anti-pork barrel stand was “misplaced generosity,” Lacson also took issue with the claim of Andaya that Speaker Arroyo did not get the “biggest insertion” of pork barrel distributed to congressmen.
”If it was misplaced gesture of gene-
rosity [by the House leadership], would it be better for them to show genuine display of good faith?
“Let them return the money and write to the chairman of the Senate Finance committee and ask that the allocation be removed because they did not know about it,” Lacson said, in a mix of English and Filipino, in a radio interview on Sunday.
Lacson also clarified that Arroyo was not being “singled out” in the issue because the period of interpellation in the Senate budget deliberation is not yet over.
Taking issue with Andaya’s assertion that pork barrel fund distribution to House members was fair and square, the senator said he was informed that this “did not happen.”
Lacson noted Andaya saying that it was the same amount of pork barrel fund given to every congressman, “but why did it not happen?”
He pointed out that, “We still have to start tackling the government agencies’ budget. Remember, only policy questions were raised last Tuesday in my interpellation. It is not yet done because we rushed the research and that is what came up because the amount was ballooning,” the senator said. The process of validation is not yet over because his research work was rushed, but the amounts he cited had surfaced precisely because they were huge, the senator added.
He hinted that he has yet to bare other congressmen and “also a senator” said to have pork allocations. He said there were premature claims that “a senator made a huge amendment” to transfer budget funds “but we are not yet in the period of amendments, so what they are saying has no basis.”
At the same time, the senator signalled that a formal motion can be made in the period of amendments to delete the pork barrel allocations.
He, however, clarified that not all suspected pork items will be deleted. “Of course, not everything because some of those items are really part of the National Expenditure Program. The amounts swelled after second-reading approval and then they held what is called a small group committee, where the amendments sought by some congressmen were inserted, but this wasn’t taken up in plenary. It seems this was tweaked just by a small group…. I don’t know how many members there were.”
Lacson added this was admitted by House panel Senior Vice Chairman Maricar Zamora and Rep. Anthony Bravo. The senator also recalled Andaya saying some lawmakers got bigger pork allocations than their fellow congressmen.
Lacson insisted that “the fact remains that in the budget, P2.4 billion, P1.9 billion plus P500 million for farm-to-market roads within the second legislative district of Pampanga—that’s what was included, that’s stated in the budget book transmitted to us by the House.”