(Eagle News) — The districts of the former leaders of the House of Representatives would actually get the bigger share of allocation for infrastructure projects under the House’s proposed national budget for 2019, House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. said on Tuesday, Dec. 11.
In a letter to be submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte, Andaya said topping the list with the “biggest (Department of Public Works and Highways) projects” were the district of former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez with P5 billion, the district of former Majority Leader Rodolfo Farinas with P3.5 billion, and the district of the former chair of the House appropriations committee and now-Cabinet member Karlo Nograles, with P4 billion.
According to Andaya, when the executive branch submitted its proposed national budget for 2019, Alvarez, Farinas and Nograles were already in the top ten.
He said the DPWH has denied knowing the origins of the “huge funding spikes,” and the Regional Development Councils have denied recommending them based on an initial check from the National Economic Development Authority.
“I am certain that if this fine print of the budget was brought to the President’s attention by his Budget officials, he would not have countenanced it as it would violate his oft-repeated promise to the people of equal progress for all,” Andaya said, noting that Arroyo’s district only ranked 60th, and his office 110th in terms of appropriations for the DPWH.
“What the present House leadership did was, in a manner compliant with all laws, to purge the budget of development favoritism and as much as possible apportion next year’s spending to all districts in a fair manner,” he added.
Andaya wrote the letter in response to Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo’s statement the “congressional insertions” in the district of House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the proposed House budget for 2019 be explained.
It was Senator Panfilo Lacson who said in budget deliberations recently that the second district of Pampanga had an allocation of P2.4 billion, while Andaya’s legislative district had more than a billion.
