Rody to ask Congress about ‘pork’ in budget

President Duterte wants Congress to clarify the reported plan to include more than P35 billion in “pork barrel” allocations in the proposed P4.1 trillion national budget for 2020.

Duterte said he would like to know the nature of the funds, which were reportedly intended to bankroll projects identified by lawmakers.

“I have not heard (of the report). When we come to the liaison between Congress and executive department, we will bring this up. What is the nature and dimension? Is it for maintenance or for committee hearings? Any hearing you have to spend. You go to the provinces, you have to spend,” Duterte said in an interview yesterday at Malacañang. “I’m going to ask. We are in the stage of preparing the budget.”

The STAR reported that more than P35 billion in pork barrel funds of lawmakers would be included in the 2020 budget to be submitted by the executive department to Congress next week.

Each House member would be given P100 million while each senator would receive P200 million, according to a lawmaker. The budget department has reportedly asked lawmakers to come up with a list of projects for their districts and constituencies.

Allocations for the 305 House members totaled P30.5 million while funds for the 24 senators totaled P4.8 billion.

For extra measure, senators have vowed a thorough scrutiny of the 2020 budget to make sure its provisions are compliant with the law and does not contain pork.

Sen. Sonny Angara, chairman of the Senate finance committee, said the deliberations on the proposed budget “will be tough and thorough.”

“Each one of us has an individual check list on how to evaluate an agency budget or spending item. Others target the absorptive capacity because there’s always underspending while others ask if this is aligned with the development plan, meaning to help the people and not in aid of reelection,” Angara said.

Some senators’ “specialty,” he said, is to sniff out items, which provisions are in violation of the Supreme Court’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) ruling.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Thursday vowed to scrutinize the budget reports that the spending outlay contains at least P35 billion in pork.

“Whether it is pork or beef, we will find out when the budget is submitted to us. We will question it and exert every effort to weed out pork from the national budget,” Drilon said.