Velasco, allies prioritized elections in 2021 budget –Cayetano

Taguig-Pateros Representative Alan Peter Cayetano on Monday accused Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and his allies of prioritizing their plans for the upcoming elections in crafting the 2021 national budget instead of ensuring funds for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Cayetano made the remark as he reacted to #ReplaceVelasco which trended on Twitter over the weekend.

In an interview with reporters in San Fernando City, Pampanga, Cayetano said that although he no longer has plans of becoming Speaker again, he was hoping that the direction being taken by the current House leadership is not far from his.

"Sana yung direksyon natin before at yung leadership ay pareho ang direksyon. Kasi kapag umiba ka ng direksyon parang, to be honest with you, parang yung mga nakapaligid sa leadership ngayon sa House parang may 2022 na pinag-uusapan," he said.

"Vaccine muna. Even sa budget ng 2021, I haven't seen all the final pero balita ko panay para sa eleksyon hindi para sa vaccination. So mabigat din for me to have lost that opportunity to have directed this budget to really help our country," he added.

Cayetano, whom Velasco replaced in October after a lengthy and heated speakership row, believes that #ReplaceVelasco trended over the weekend due to the current Speaker's supposed lack of "decency" in talking with lawmakers before stripping them of positions.

It can be recalled that many of Cayetano's allies have been removed from their posts ever since Velasco took over as Speaker.

For one, Anakalusugan party-list Representative Mike Defensor, who has booted out as chair of the House Committee on Public Accounts, claimed that Velasco did not even talk to him before he was removed from the post even though he had the chance to do so.

"Sa akin nga kasi, part ito ng sama ng loob nung iba na decency ba na kausapin at tsaka hindi sinunod yung usapan," Cayetano said.

"But for me, for most people that's politics and right now people are looking for solutions not politics," he added.

GMA News Online has reached out to Velasco for his comment on Cayetano's allegations, but he has yet to respond as of posting time.

Nevertheless, the House under Velasco earlier introduced P20-billion worth of institutional amendments in its version of the 2021 General Appropriations Bill, which included P5.5 billion for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines.

This increase, Velasco said, is "more than three-fold" of the original allocation for COVID-19 vaccines so that more Filipinos can be covered.

In the final version of the 2021 budget bill, a total of P72.5 billion in regular and unprogrammed funds has been included for COVID-19 vaccine procurement, storage, and distribution. — DVM, GMA News