Sotto says House members trying to avert budget veto
By Charmaine A. Tadalan
Reporter
SENATE President Vicente C. Sotto III said the House of Representatives is making a “last-ditch effort” to save its post-ratification realignments in the P3.757-trillion national budget from being vetoed.
House appropriations committee chair and Camarines Sur 1st District Rep. Rolando G. Andaya, Jr., on Monday accused the Senate of sabotaging the government’s “Build, Build, Build” program, after reducing the allocation for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Transportation (DoTr), among other agencies.
“It’s a last-ditch effort to obfuscate the issue and try to prevent the President’s veto of their illegal realignments,” the Senate President told reporters in a phone message on Monday. “Even their colleagues know. No excuses necessary because the President knows everything.”
The budget, ratified on Feb. 8, is awaiting President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s signature after Mr. Sotto on March 26 signed the bill, ending the impasse between both Houses which has stalled budget enactment for the first quarter of 2019.
This delay has prompted the interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee to slash its growth forecast for 2019 gross domestic product (GDP) to 6-7% from 7-8%, while the National Economic and Development Authority projected separately that the full-year GDP growth will decline to 6.1-6.3% if the reenacted 2018 budget remains in force until April.
Mr. Sotto, despite signing the national budget, noted his “reservations” about the post-ratification realignments made by the House, amounting to P95 billion. Of this amount, he said P75 billion has been realigned to programs and projects under the Local Infrastructure Program of the DPWH.
“The House introduced amendments increasing the budget for infrastructure projects without breaching the total amount pegged by the National Expenditure Program,” Mr. Andaya said in a statement on Monday.
“It is the Senate that may find itself liable to accusations of sabotage when it decided, unilaterally, to cut down the allocation for the President’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ Program and other priority projects.”
Mr. Andaya identified, among others, the Senate slashed P5-billion and P11.033 billion from right-of-way projects under the DoTr and the DPWH, respectively; and some P2.5 billion for Foreign Assisted Projects, also under the DPWH.
Meanwhile, conflict rose among House members over the weekend after Camarines Sur 2nd District Rep. Luis Raymund F. Villafuerte, Jr. alleged that P92.3 billion was realigned to districts favored by the current leadership. House Majority Leader Fredenil H. Castro of the 2nd District of Capiz later addressed this in a March 30 statement, saying Mr. Villafuerte is “peddling fake news.”
Senator Panfilo M. Lacson, for his part, told reporters in a phone message: “The infighting brought about by the ‘spoils for the victors’ actually exposed the indiscretions of the House leadership in whimsically realigning pork insertions even after the ratification of the bicam report.”
“On a positive note, this is good for us and the Filipino taxpayers since it could make it easier for Malacañang to discern when the president exercises his line item veto authority,” he added.
