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ss Insght
Tuesday, October I, 2OI9

Alan dares critics:

Show me pork .
'
..
BY WEI{DELL VIGILIA
SPEAKER Alan Peter Cayetano
vesterday challenged Seo. Paofilo
Lacson and other critics ofthe
House of Representatives to ideo-
ti!' the supposed "pork" in the
House-approved vetsion of the
2020 proposed national budget.
"I won't respond to rumots."
Cayetafio told a press confer
ence when asked to comment on
Lacson's attacLs that the House-
apptoved GAB is riddled with
pork. "My mother told me not to
be a rumor-monger. lfhen you
engage in rumors, you become a
rumot-rgonget yourself "
Cayetano said that while he re-
spects Lacsonk advocacy'against
the potk barrel system, ..it seems
that he can't accept that this House
is also against potk."
Cayetano said he is willing to sit
down not only with Lacson. who
was his former colleague in the
Senate, but also vith other cdtics
to discuss the issue and explain to
rhem that no lump sum allocarions
or discretionary funds for lawmak-
els were inserted in the GAB.
"Iell me where the pork is and
we'll sit down with you," he said.
"If thete is pork, identify it and
we'll be the one to rcmove it from
the budget."
Lacson has claimed that a con-
gtessman-sowce had told him drat
congressmeo uanted P1.5 biiton
in allocations fot each of &te 22
deputy speakers and P700 million
for the rest of its members.
The senatot, however, Iater said
the plan was scrapped even before
he revealed it to media - a state-
ment which Capiz Rep. Fredenil
Castro eatl-ier saidwas ufterly base-
less, especially since L".soo h", .ot
even read and studied the GAB
which will only be transmitted to
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 AI-AN
the Senate today.
Caietano made a power point
presfotation of the P9.5 bi.llion
iostitutional amendments that
t}re House has made in the GAB,
rrhich he said was still alrnost iden-
ticel to the National Expenditure
Program G\EP) that the execurive
suboitted to the House.
Of these institutional amend-
meors, the biggest chunk of P3
billior went to the Depanmeot
of .\riculture's ptoposed bud-
get tior the purchase of palay
(u.ohusked tice).
'"There's no pork in palay," said
Caretano. "How can palay be
porkT'
The Speaket said he can also
uodersand how effordess it is for
the people to believe the saying,
"rrlere there's smoke, there's fire"
because it's easy to hurl allegations.
"I hear you, if there is smoke
rhere is fue but we have a smoke
machine nowadays so it's possible
that theret no fte but there's a
smoke machine and some people
*ork better in the smokg in the da*.
Thads what they wanq ' he said.
He said aoyone can easily ac,
cuse someone of anything "but
the problem is once you've done
it, rou can no longer take it back."
Cayetano said no coflgressman
is "stupid" enough to aftempt to
insett pork funds in the budget
s'hen the Prcsident has already
threatened to veto such items.
Ia the same press conference,
majority leader Ferdinand Martin
Romualdez said Lacson's allega-
tions, "at best, is premature."
'qffe aren't even done yet and
we're aLeady being criticized. If
dtere are suspicions, leds discuss it
in the bicam - if there's a grey area
or pork It's still premature but leCs
also tell out dear senators that they
a.lso have former colleagues here
(Caveano and deputy speaker I-o-
ren I-egarda of Aatique), drey have
ftiends here and they vont allow it"
NO CEASEFIRE
Deputy speaker Luis Villafuerte
of Camarines Sur said thete was
no "ceaseite" between the two
chambers because Lacson violated
the €reement between Romualdez
and Senate majority leader Juan
Miguel Zubiri last week.
\4llafuerte said it wotrld be better
ifI-acsoq would be tlrc one to initiate
*re call fot
a ceasefue since he was
the one who did not honor it.
. "There was no ceasefire because
after Sen. Migs called for it (on
Wednesday night), Congress as
ao institution was attacked again
tlle following morning," he told
teporters. "It would be better if
the call for a ceasefite will come
from Sen. Ping,"
Lacson took exception to Vil-
lafuerte's rcmark that he violated
the supposed "ceasefi re."
"Cong. Villafuerte for once
should stop prevaricating," Lac-
son said in a text message. "How
could I not honor something that
I did not have knowledge about?
He should not put words int6 my
mouth then comment on it him-
self," he added.
Villafuertg who is a pary mate of
the Speaker in the Nacionalista Party
(flP), assured I-acsoo that '$e will
fight alongside him agamst porL"
He said the House remains con,
fident that oo pork or insettion will
be discovered by senators once the
GAB is sent to the Senate.
Villafuerte also defended the
House's move to create a small a
panel headed by appropriations
commiftee chair Davao City Rep.
Isidto Ungab which was tasked
to accept or reject proposed indi-
vidual ameqdments to the GAB
even if it *as already approved on
6nal read.ing
The lawmaker sard he is wonder-
ing why incumbent senato$ who
are formet congfessmen,ale not
v iel,.ot u/e
defending tlle House's move which
he said has been the practice at the
since the 8th Congress, or some 30
years ago.
"It's clear in the Constitution
that boti Houses can determine
their orvn rules of procedure. Sq
that small committee has been go-
ing on for 30 years," he said.
SENATORS PUSH
FOR BUDGET REVISIONS
Senate President Pro Tempore
Ralph Recto said the 2020 budget
of the Philippine General Hospital
must be increased, and flot cut
down by P456 milJion as proposed
by the Deparmrent of Budget aod
Management,
In a statement yelterday, Recto
lamented that the PGH's budgeg
which is lodged under dre Univenity
of the Philippines system, will be
feduced to P2.77 billion, ftom the
cu$ent budget of P3.23 bi io!t.
"The PGH is often the 6rst op-
tidn ana the last resort of the poot
aod the middle class to get t}re best
medical treatrneng so any cut on its
budget hurts the deepest," Recto
said. "Not only must the cuts be
restored, its (PGH) budget must
be increased."
Recto also said the budgets of
the PGH's regional counterparts,
such as Vicente Sotto Memorial
Medical Center in Cebu City and
Southern Philippines Medical
Center in Davao City, should be
increased too.
House appropriations commit-
tee chair Rep. Isidro Ungab has
said on September 26 that some
P500 million will be realigned to
the PGH to effectively undo the
budget cut. The funds will come
from the amounts ofiginally meant
for the May 11, 2020 barangay and.
Sangguniang Kabataan elections,
which Congress is pushing to
postpone by tlree years,
Minodty Leader Fraqklin
Senate
Ddlon, for his palt, raised con-
NeuJ.f u
t"4)
cerns that a large chunk of the
Depattment of National Defense's
proposed 2020 budget will be used
to pay fot pension than to beef up
its active military petsonnel.
"With the ballooning cost of
military pension, will it be a matter
of time before the Department of
National Defense becomes a 6. 1-
fledged Deparmrent of Pension-
ers?" Drilon asked.
'"Ihis has been a ptoblem ever
since arid we keep sweeping it under
the rug," Drilon told Defense Sec-
, retary Delfifl Irrenzana at t}re hear-
ing on the proposed P188.6 billion
budget of his departrnent fot2020.
In oext year's appropriation, the
pension tequirement of militaty
veterans will reach P69.7 billion,
which represents 60.57o/a of rhe
P115.077 billion total budget for
active military personnel.
On the average, Lorenzana said
the pensioo budget gtows by P1
billion yearly.
Drilon uged I-orenzana to come
up with a solutioo on the gowing
problems in the military pension
sptenq citingits sedous impJications
on the national budget.
"It is time that we come up with
a defnite plan to solve it because if
we don't, we would become a de-
partment of pensioners," he said.
The pension requitement of
military personnel has ballooned
over the yea$ due to automatic in-
dexation where peasion entidement
is automatically adjusted based oo
prevailing scale of base pay of simi-
Iatly ranked active personnel.
Alsq unlike in the case of civil-
ian personnel it is the goverrtmenq
drough dre General Appropriations
Act, drat 6mds the pension require-
ment of uaifotmed personnel
belonging to the AFP arrd the PNP
The unifotmed personnel also
has an eady retirement program
at 56 years old, when the maxi-
mum retiiement age for civilian
personnel is at 65 years old.
-
With Vince Nonato