Duterte wants Arroyo to explain alleged P2.4-B ‘pork’ – Panelo

Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. (c)PATHRICIA ROXAS

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte needs to hear justification of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on the supposed pork barrel inclusions in the proposed 2019 national spending plan, Malacañang said Monday.

“He (Duterte) said that there will be some explanation on the part of Speaker Arroyo and others. So let’s hear them,”  Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo told journalists in a Palace preparation when gotten some information about the President's remain on the alleged budget inclusions.

Earlier, Sen. Panfilo Lacson uncovered that the assets were distributed to Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who got P2.4 billion worth of ventures, and House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr., P1.9 billion, for their particular districts.

Lacson said the P4.3-billion funds assigned to the administrative regions of Arroyo and Andaya was pork.

Panelo, in any case, asserted that Arroyo has just connected with him and clarified that the things began from various government offices and not from administrators.

“Contrary to the allegation of pork barrel, they (lawmakers) said that this time there were items and these items were given by different agencies. In other words, prior to the approval they’ve been there, unlike the pork barrel where there is no specific item where it will go,”

Blame dealing 

This incited the House of Representatives to gather Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno to clarify the alleged inclusions of some P52 billion for certain administrative regions, which administrators had reprimanded for the deferral in the endorsement of the proposed P3.8-trillion national spending plan for 2019.

In any case, Diokno, in a meeting at the Senate prior, demanded that there were no additions in the financial plan. He additionally said that it was the House, and not the Department of Management and Budget, that made changes in the General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

“There are no insertions, I can say that,” he said in an interview at the Senate. “Bukas I will appear sa House, sa Question Hour. I will answer these questions.”