Sotto, Arroyo to meet with Duterte over proposed national budget issues

(Eagle News)–President Rodrigo Duterte is slated to meet Senate President Tito Sotto and Speaker Gloria Arroyo over issues surrounding the already-ratified national budget.

Sotto made the revelation in a radio interview on Tuesday, March 12.

According to Sotto, the meeting would take place on Tuesday night.

He said he would also ask Senator Panfilo Lacson, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, finance committee chair Loren Legarda, and the chief of the Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office, which is conducting a review of the budget bill transmitted by the House of Representatives to the Senate to accompany him.

The meeting with President Duterte comes amid an apparent squabble between the Senate and the House of Representatives, which Lacson had accused of manipulating the proposed national budget ratified by Congress.

House appropriations chair Rolando Andaya Jr. had said they were merely “itemizing” the budget to make it easier to scrutinize.

Lacson had, however, said Sotto would not sign the budget bill to be transmitted to Duterte for signature if the House insisted in including what he said were insertions that favored Arroyo’s allies.

Arroyo has denied the allegations.