Budget scandal jolts Lower House
A privilege speech delivered by a party-list solon jolted members of the House of Representatives when lawmakers started exposing maneuverings in the passage of national budget bills allegedly made during the terms of Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and his predecessor, TaguigPateros Alan Peter Cayetano.
The scandal started when Anakalusugan Party-list Rep. Michael T. Defensor rose to deliver a privilege speech aimed at assailing Velasco for allegedly secretly slashing P20-billion from the 2021 budget for gratuity and pension fund of personnel of uniformed services.
Rising in defense of Velasco, ACTCIS Partylist Rep. Eric Go Yap, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, revealed that Cayetano did worse when the former speaker allegedly secretly cut by P70 billion the 2020 allocation for the same gratuity and pension fund.
Yap went on to extend the blame on former appropriations chief and Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, saying that his predecessor was clearly part of Cayetano’s move.
But Ungab, who was attending the session via zoom, objected as he denied any role in the P70 billion cut. He pointed accusing fingers at Cayetano and Camarines Sur Rep. Elray Villafuerte, adding that what was surreptitiously slashed by the two former leaders was not P70 billion but P209 billion.
“I think this is the proper time to reveal what truly happened, everything that has happened. ‘Yun pong nag-finalize ng bicameral conference committee report was not anymore the chairman (of the Committee on Appropriations),” Ungab revealed.
“Na-finalize po ‘yan sa (That was finalized at the) Office of the Speaker. Andun si Speaker Cayetano and (then) Deputy Speaker LRay Villafuerte, who finalized the bicam report,” he explained.
Ungab said being a reserve military man, he could not, in conscience do what Yap had accused him of doing. He said it was the Cayetano-Villafuerte partnership that allegedly made decisions with regards the proposed 2020 General Appropriations Act.
The Davao City solon said that he was fully aware that P209 billion was re-aligned, but was kept at a distance when Cayetano and Villafuerte disfigured what had already been agreed upon in the Lower House.
“Speaker Cayetano and Congressman Villafuerte did the changes,” said Ungab.
Aside from the P70 billion reduction from the pension fund, Cayetano and Villafuerte, then the senior deputy speaker, allegedly took away P1.3 billion from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources; P71 billion from the Department of Public Works and Highways; P52 billion from the Department of Transportation; P2-billiion from the Department of Education; P4 billion from the bases conversion allocation and P4 billion from the National Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Council.
Ungab vowed to reveal where Cayetano and Villafuerte re-aligned the budget cuts in a privilege speech he will deliver in person next week.
Shocked by the revelations, Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez suggested the conduct of an investigation on the issues raised.
On the other hand, Northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza called on the appropriations panel to submit a report on the re-alignments made prior to the signing of the 2020 and 2021 GAA.