(Eagle News) — Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Wednesday, Nov. 27, denied he slashed the budget intended for the Philippines’ hosting of the Southeast Asian Games and transferred a part of it to fund projects in Iloilo, his province.
“It is a complete lie. Mr. Salo is a blabbermouth and a purveyor of fake news,” Drilon said in a statement.
He was referring to Kabayan party-list Rep. Ron Salo, who made the insinuation against him in a privilege speech earlier in the day.
According to Drilon, in the first place, based on the Senate journal dated December 6, 2018, no senator moved to reduce the SEA Games budget.
He said the P7.5 billion funding “that was mysteriously lodged in the budget of the Department of Foreign Affairs –that even the Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Locsin disowned– was only transferred to the Philippine Sports Commission.”
“The third reading version of the 2019 General Appropriations Bill passed by the Senate would show that the P7.5 billion budget lodged under the (PSC) was intact,” he said.
He said it was only during the bicameral conference, whose members include some congressmen, where the budget was reduced to P5 billion.
It was not him, he said, who made the proposal.
“The current budget of the SEA Games remains at P6 billion after P1 billion was transferred from the contingent fund,” he said.
“If only Mr. Salo exercised due diligence, he would have saved himself from embarrassment. But that would be wishful thinking,” he added.
Earlier, Salo commended SEA Games organizers for a job well done despite the P2.5-billion cut in their funding.
He noted that “curiously,” simultaneous with the cut was the increase by P2.3 billion in the funding for various infrastructure projects in Iloilo.
