Lacson hopes Duterte vetoes ‘pork barrel allocations’

Although President Duterte has already signed next year’s

13.7-trillion national budget, Senator Panfilo M. Lacson expressed hopes yesterday that the President still vetoes what he termed as “excessive pork barrel allocations” allegedly inserted by individual lawmakers in the 2018 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

“Obviously, these projects were not included in the submitted local development plans and therefore not vetted by the national agencies concerned, while admittedly amendments adopted by both Houses are part of our constitutionally mandated duties as legislators,” Lacson charged.

“These amendments distort government priorities as

these are mostly arbitrary and vested with personal interests,” he said.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has already submitted to Malacañang for line-item veto the 2018 GAA and the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act.

There is still no announcement from Malacañang on what portion of the budget would be vetoed.

Earlier, Lacson said a “chosen few” senators and congressmen would get billions worth of projects next year.

“I discovered most of those “owned up” projects when I cut some P68 billion worth of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) infrastructure projects with yet unresolved ROW (right of way) issues,” he said.

Lacson made the observation following reports that some opposition legislators would not get funds for their pet projects in 2018 because of politics or for not toeing the administration line.

He expressed sadness that he was led to believe that the 2018 national budget would be “pork-free.”

He also questioned the additional 111-billion raise to the DPWH budget despite his yeoman’s job of clearing it of “pork barrel allocations.”