MANILA, Philippines — No lawmaker will be spared scrutiny in the Senate's review of the proposed 2027 national budget as senators take a “gung-ho” approach in correcting questionable allocations and budget insertions, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said.
Lacson said he and fellow members of the Senate majority bloc fully support Senate Finance Committee chairman Sen. JV Ejercito in addressing red flags in the House-approved version of the proposed General Appropriations Act.
“Our attitude now is to go gung-ho. If anyone gets hit, so be it. There will be no exceptions, otherwise the exception could become the general rule,” Lacson said in an interview with One News.
Asked whether the scrutiny would also cover the biggest net increase in public works allocations for the congressional district of presidential son and Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos in the House-approved budget, Lacson replied: “Yes, absolutely.”
“If we make exceptions, many will ask for exceptions and we won't succeed because there will be plea bargaining,” he said.
The Senate is scheduled to resume plenary sessions on Nov. 9, when debates on the proposed 2027 budget will begin.
Lacson said he already submitted his subcommittee reports on the proposed budgets of government agencies assigned to him, which are now being reviewed by the Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office (LBRMO).
“Once the plenary sessions resume, the LBRMO would have finished its review and we can introduce amendments to restore the changes the House made to its version of the General Appropriations Bill,” he said.
Lacson expressed confidence that questionable insertions would not find their way into the Senate version of the budget.
“In the Senate, I don't know if someone sneaked in funds for pet projects, but I don't think so. When we in the majority bloc chat, I can feel my colleagues' sentiments,” he said.
