(Eagle News)–Senator Panfilo Lacson on Saturday, Feb. 22, slammed what he said was “disinformation” that he was the sponsor of a multi-million-peso road concreting project in a barangay in Tarlac.
In a statement, Lacson denied he had sponsored a local item in the P4.1-trillion budget for 2020 for the P25-million road concreting project in Barangay San Rafael.
“First, I don’t realign appropriations for road projects, much less local roads since it smacks of a pork barrel allocation,” he said.
He added “the realignments I propose in the national budget are institutional – meaning, they have undergone planning and vetting, and are based on requests from the implementing agencies concerned.”
He said the disinformation appeared to come after Malacañang and the Department of Budget and Management withheld at least P80 billion in congressional alignments made by some lawmakers at the expense of the administration’s “Build, Build, Build” flagship program.
He said his office received a call of thanks supposedly on behalf of Tarlac City Mayor Maria Cristina C. Angeles this week.
The contractor was reportedly about to start the construction.
“Without imputing malice to the mayor, this may be a hatchet job intended to put me in a bad light since I have consistently and diligently advocated for the active involvement of the LGUs in the preparation of national budget and their just share in the allocation of funds,” he said.
He said this was the “reason why I keep questioning such congressional interventions which should have been processed and endorsed by the Regional Development Councils (RDCs) after going through proper deliberations in the different local development councils.”
“If you recall, I particularly questioned why projects endorsed by local development councils constituted a mere 25 percent share in the national budget, compared to the 75 percent initiated by national agencies,” he said.
