Harry Roque's denial of lump sums should not be taken seriously -Lacson

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque's denial of the presence of lump sum allocations in the proposed P4.5-trillion national budget for 2021 "should not be taken seriously", Senator Panfilo Lacson said on Thursday.

Lacson made the statement after Roque in a news briefing said that there were no lump sum appropriations in the proposed budget now being scrutinized by Congress.

The senator had flagged P469-billion worth of reappropriated and lump sum projects under the proposed budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways for 2021, which he said were unconstitutional.

"With [Budget Secretary Wendel] Avisado’s virtual admission  of the questionable entries in the 2021 [national expenditure program]  and his commitment to ask DPWH to submit a revised list of PAP’s easily makes Secretary Roque’s statement stand on hollow grounds and therefore  should not be taken seriously," Lacson said.

Avisado said at the Senate hearing on Wednesday that he would coordinate with Public Works Secretary Mark Villar and submit to the Senate what was necessary, in compliance and accordance with Lacson's observations.

As regards the relisted projects, Avisado said their completion had been hampered by the COVID-19 pandemic this year.

"Even as we were trying to have these projects implemented, all of them, we were not able to do so because of COVID, they were part of the budget that was utilized to respond to the pandemic. What is left is that the Secretary of DPWH still went out of his way to fund these projects but not in its entirety," Avisado said.

"For a starter, he (DPWH Secretary) submitted a list of projects whose release of funds constituted 15% only of the total project cost. The balance, he recommended that they be funded again for next year to complete the project," he added.

Roque on Thursday said the executive department prepared a budget that followed the Supreme Court ruling on the use of public funds.

“Naniniwala po kami, walang lump sum appropriation diyan, lahat po iyan mayroong proyekto na naka-specify,” he said at a Palace briefing. -NB, GMA News