MANILA – Malacañang has assured Sen. Panfilo Lacson that President Rodrigo Duterte will veto unconstitutional items in the proposed P4.506 trillion 2021 national budget.
In a virtual presser on Monday, Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said President Duterte is just waiting the final copy of the enrolled budget bill.
“Unang-una, bago mag-review, dapat i-submit,” Roque said. “Pangalawa, meron na pong proven track record ang Presidente na hindi siya sasang-ayon sa mga kakabalalaghan na pupuwedeng gawin sa budget.”
“In the previous budget, vineto ni Presidente lahat na questionable na mga items sa budget. I think, Sen. Lacson can be confident na hindi lulusot ‘yan sa ating Presidente,” he added.
Lacson earlier called for the immediate review of next year’s budget with the supposed dubious items in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
According to the senator, P83.87 billion of DPWH’s infrastructure projects was allocated for new projects. Funding worth P55.52 billion also disappeared.
“I can only assume that the reason behind the increase of P28 billion in the budget of the DPWH is that they cannot accommodate everybody,” Lacson said in an interview with CNN Philippines’ The Source. “Because during the bicam, this is where the congressmen and senators haggle for their pet projects.”
Lacson added that project requests amounted to around P83 billion while the committee also had to extract from the allocation of other agencies including the education, transportation and defense departments.
“And since they can only extract P55 billion from the budget of the DPWH, there’s a difference of 28 billion, kailangan kumuha sila from other departments or agencies,” the senator explained.
The budget measure is now up for signing into law by President Duterte, with Malacañang earlier assuring a “careful” review of the document./PN
