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MANILA, Philippines – More than P83 billion in funding for infrastructure projects under the 2021 budget of the Department of Public Works and Roads (DPWH) “migrated to new areas” while allocations for P55 billion “disappeared,” it said on Friday. Senator Panfilo Lacson.
Lacson claimed that the bicameral conference committee members made “capricious and arbitrary” adjustments to the DPWH budget as it did not involve “proper planning” on the part of the agency.
“Report of the bicameral committee of Congress: P83.87 [billion] of DPWH infrastructure projects migrated to new areas, while allotments were worth P55.52 [billion] disappeared, ”Lacson said on Twitter.
“As if it wasn’t enough to satisfy their greed, they cut the budgets of other departments at P28.35 [billion]. Story of our lives, “he added.
When asked to explain this, Lacson told INQUIRER.net that “adjustments” made by the bicameral conference committee, which consists of House and Senate legislators, included “new elements” in the DPWH budget. .
These “adjustments” also consisted of increases in existing items in the budget.
“All this, in the total amount of P83.87 billion,” he said in a text message.
To cover this amount, Lacson said funds for existing items under the DPWH budget were cut while “the rest of the items were completely eliminated.”
“The total aggregate decrease according to our initial surface amounts to P55,521 million,” he added.
Given that there is a difference of P28.35 billion, the senator said that the members of the bicam “had to extract” that amount of projects from other departments or agencies “to compensate for the shortage.”
According to Lacson, he has yet to determine which departments or agencies got their budget cut by the more than P28 billion added to DPWH.
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“Until last night, we haven’t seen the line-by-line adjustments under the bicam. All we have as we speak are the summary, the joint explanatory notes and the changes to the special and general provisions, ”he said in a separate message.
This was one of the reasons he did not sign the bicameral committee report, he said.
Congress ratified the final version of the P4.5 trillion national budget for 2021 on Wednesday.
“These readjustments, being capricious and arbitrary on the part of the bicameral conference committee members, did not involve adequate planning on the part of DPWH,” Lacson said.
“This explains why, as I pointed out in my interpellation last Wednesday, year after year, DPWH suffers from one of the lowest budget utilization rates with an annual average of P82B from 2011 to 2018 and an even lower average disbursement rate. since 2017, ”he added.
/ MUF
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