Angara: Touching infra budgets in districts would have delayed passage of 2021 budget

Published December 10, 2020 12:05 PM By DONA MAGSINO, GMA News

Realigning billions of the infrastructure budget lodged in various congressional districts is a move that would have delayed the passage of the proposed P4.5 trillion national budget for 2021, Senator Sonny Angara said on Thursday.

This was after Senator Panfilo Lacson questioned why the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) had an increased budget under the bicameral report despite his previous proposal to realign some P63 billion from skeleton multi-purpose buildings, right of way, double appropriations, and overlapping projects.

"Yes, we discussed it. But again, you take away those projects from a certain congressman's district, you're gonna have a problem and that's not gonna allow you to pass the budget by yearend so may tatamaan talaga doon," Angara, who led the Senate contingent in the bicam, said in an interview on ANC when asked if the proposed realignment was taken up in fine-tuning the general appropriations bill.

"There's always compromise in any budget. Otherwise, you would never get your budget passed if you don't want to give and take a little bit," he added.

He said the congressmen are naturally inclined to assert funding for the projects that are being requested by their constituents, such as roads, classrooms, and multi-purpose buildings.

"You talk to any congressman and they will tell you hinihingan sila sa districts. So, I think those are the requirements of the job partly," Angara said.

"When you are up for re-election in three years, your constituents will ask you, 'Did you bring home the bacon to our area, to our district?' So 'yan ang usapan diyan, di maiwasan 'yan taun-taon," he added.

During the budget debates in the Senate, Lacson revealed the poor status

of some local infrastructure projects, including multi-purpose buildings, that had already received funding in previous years but are still included in the proposed 2021 budget.

Despite the call to defund these "skeleton" projects, Lacson lamented that the budget for multi-purpose buildings was even hiked in the bicam report.

"I will not mention anymore the locations because I don’t want to put some people on the spot. Suffice it to say that I know where additional funds for MPBs went to, or are intended to be appropriated. So let’s leave it at that," Lacson said during the session before the bicam report was approved.

Lacson previously said the allies of new House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco got a boost in infrastructure budget while those of former Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano received cuts.

House Appropriations committee chairperson Eric Yap previously refuted Lacson's claim that closeness or alliance to Velasco played a role in the budget deliberations at the House.

In the ANC interview, Angara agreed with Lacson that the DPWH should really launch a crackdown against projects "which serve no good public purpose."

"The DPWH should really look at the quality of the projects. Projects which are discontinued, roads which were not continued and had been ongoing for so long, those projects should be discontinued," he said.

"But regarding the gymnasiums, for instance, I think if you talk to the people on the ground, they will tell you those are important projects," he added.

The DPWH got the second highest allocation under the proposed 2021 budget approved by Congress with P694.8 billion—higher than the P287.5 billion earmarked for the health sector amid the COVID-19 pandemic.—AOL, GMA News

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