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Diokno pushes budget-line item veto
despite Andaya's vehement Protest
By Macon Ramos-Araneta
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Dutefte may Yet
veto line items in the 2019 national bud-
gdt, Budget.Secretary Benjarnin Diokno
said Monday.
In an interview with GMA News, Dio-
kno ,sard the Department of Budget and
Management would prepare a slatemenl
of difference. indicating line-by-line oiffer-
ences between the budget originally pro-
posed and the version ratfied by Congress.
'If it\ an imprcvement over our Pro-
Diokno...
Eon Al
faloi-€ertain conhacto$ in public works
projects.
"This js the reason why I am making so
much noise. The DBM secretary is the one
tasked to qaft the budg€t veto message for
the President's signatue. I do not waat the
President to get bum advice fron Diokno-
and his fellow conspirators," said Andaya.
who was Budget chiefunder the A[oyo ad-
ministration.
At the bicameral conference committee
meetins last week, senators and congress_
men aireed to remove and "realign" tbe
Pu5 biilion Diokno admitted having in-
serted in the Public Works budget without
the knowledge of Public Works S€cretary
Mark Villar.
Andaya said Diokno and his alleged fel-
low conspirators are under "intense prcs-
sure" to put back the realigned funds be-
cause the favored contracto$ had already
handed out commissions ranging from 10
percent to 20 perc€nt of the of the project
cost,
"Contractors who paid commissions for
the P75-billion infra projects i$erted by
the DBM in the National Expenditure Pro-
gram arc upset that their cash advances will
be put to mught," Andaya said.
Dioklo, who has come under colstant
attack by Andaya, has consistently denied
'\ TPoiT P/\Q€"
posal, we recommend [concurrence]...But if
it's wolse than what we proposed, we might
recommend a liue-item veto," he said.
After a one-month delaY and debates
over alleged porkinsedions in the nation-
al spending plan, Congress ratiied the
P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019,
On Monday, Camarines Sur ReP. Ro-
lando Andaya, chairman of the House
cbmmittee on appropriations, wamed
against a veto, saying Diokno was hy-
ing to manipulate the budget process to
Nert Poge
any wrongdoing in the budget process.
Also on Monday. Senate Miriority Lead-
er Franklin Diilon said the billions i! "pork
inse ions" in the 2019 budget can still be
'Drilon, before the Supreme Court.
ouestioned
who voted against tbe budget
bill, said anyone can raise the issue to the
Suoreme Court,
Larlier. Senator Panfilo Lacson, who
also voted against th€ budget, urged the
President to veto any line item that "looked
and smelled like poik."
While Lacson complained about the
discrctionary funds that remained, he said
some progress had been made in removing
pork, including the deletioD ofall appropri-
alions for flood conlrol. particularly dredg-
ing, desilting and the like; and realignment
ofthese funds to capital outlays for the pur-
chase of drcdging machines.
He also oited the Senate-intrcduc€d De-
partment of Heallh realignmem. as well
as the adoption of most of his institurional
amendments, such as;
. The 240 -day-a-year school feeding pro-
gram for wasted and nearly wasted school-
children;
. Addilional allowances lor teachers;
. some approp ations to cover laws ;
passed regarding v€terans;
. AII augmentation budget requested by
the iudiciarv: and
."Activation of an infantry unir to nght
tefiorist groups in Mindatrao