(Eagle News)–Senator Panfilo Lacson is seeking the help of the public in ensuring that the 2020 national budget remains “pork-free.”
“Any technical support from the outside will certainly help in our scrutiny of the 2020 budget books,” Lacson said in response to a question about whether or not his staff knew financial forensics.
According to Lacson, budget deliberations start this week in the 18th Congress.
“It is time to play another protracted game of “hide-and-seek”: they hide, we seek,” he said.
“This is taxpayers’ money we are talking about,” Lacson said. “We should not allow a greedy few to lay their grubby hands on it, to put it mildly,” he added.
The Department of Budget Management has submitted the proposed P4.1-trillion national budget to the Senate.
Lacson has been very vocal against pork barrel, and was among those who led the Senate charge against the House of Representatives over what he said were “insertions” made by several congressmen in the 2019 House-proposed national budget.
The House of Representatives led by House majority leader Rep. Rolando Andaya denied the allegations.
President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed P95.3 billion appropriations in the 2019 national budget which included the amount Lacson and the Senate had questioned.
