Pang-eleksyon ba? Ping questions bicam’s juggling of funds in DPWH’s 2021 budget

Is the juggling of funds in the Department of Public Works and Highways’ budget for 2021 meant for the 2022 national and local elections?

Sen. Panfilo Lacson raised this question Thursday, a day after he bared an increase of more than P28 billion in the DPWH’s 2021 budget, after it went through the bicameral conference.

“The net increase of P28.3 billion on top of juggled funds within the DPWH’s 2021 budget could only indicate massive realignments and insertions introduced by the legislators. It begs the question: is this an election campaign budget?” Lacson said in a statement.

He noted even the multi-purpose buildings he repeatedly questioned in the committee hearings all the way to plenary gained more funds instead of being reduced.

This was in spite of the obvious waste of funds due to the failure of the DPWH to implement them, he said.

During his interpellation of the bicameral report on the 2021 budget bill, Lacson bared an increase in appropriations for controversial multi-purpose buildings.

He said this was despite his effort to slash P60 billion from the appropriations for MPBs for 2021.

“I will not mention anymore the locations because I don’t want to put some people on the spot. Suffice it to say that I know where additional funds for MPBs went to, or are intended to be appropriated. So let’s leave it at that,” he said.

Also, Lacson questioned 793 line items for multi-purpose buildings in the DPWH budget, with a uniform P1-million appropriation each.

This is despite the assessment that MPBs with a budget of less than P2 million would not be implementable.

Meanwhile, Lacson maintained he is not questioning the collegial nature of the plenary deliberations, but added he had not been furnished a detailed copy of the bicam report.

“(I) cannot give my vote to a measure as important as the national budget without having read the details of the said bicameral conference report,” he said.

“All that being said, what happened is now water under the bridge. But it is high time we learn our lessons from this,” he added.

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