Congressmen to question P92-billion fund ‘hijacking’ before SC

MANILA, Philippines — Congressmen who claim their leaders “hijacked” billions in infrastructure and health funds from their districts and allocated it to their “favored” colleagues are planning to question the alleged diversion before the Supreme Court (SC).

“We will file a case or join Senate President Tito (Vicente) Sotto and Sen. Ping (Panfilo) Lacson in questioning the realignments made by the House leadership,” one of the aggrieved lawmakers said yesterday.

He said the realignments were effected after the Senate and the House of Representatives ratified the bicameral conference committee (bicam) report containing the final version of the proposed 2019 budget last Feb. 8.

“What they did was clearly unconstitutional and constituted abuse of discretion,” he said.

He pointed out that the funds taken away from their districts were not only part of President Duterte’s budget proposal but were approved by the House and the Senate as well in their respective versions of the proposed budget.

“The House made the changes unilaterally in violation of the Constitution after the budget was approved,” he stressed.

He added that if his leaders wanted to realign funds, they could have legally done it while the proposed budget was pending with the House or during the bicameral conference.

Lacson has vowed to question the post-budget ratification changes made by the House before the high court if they are carried in the budget law. 

He said funds from up to 62 congressional districts were realigned and given to favored congressmen, including Arthur Yap of Bohol and Prospero Pichay Jr. of Surigao del Sur.

Sotto has urged President Duterte to veto or reject such changes. The budget bill is pending with Malacañang.

The Senate leader said scores of affected House members, including Raul Daza of Northern Samar and Aurora Cerilles of Zamboanga del Sur, complained to him.

According to Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte, one of the House members whose districts lost funds, up to P92.3 billion was taken away from their constituents.

Of that amount, he said P72.3 billion was for infrastructure projects, while P20 billion was for health facilities.

“The House leadership padded the pork barrel allocations of favorite members with funds from our districts after the 2019 budget was approved by the two chambers of Congress,” he said.

He added that it was the fund diversion that delayed the enactment of the proposed national budget for this year.

Except for Villafuerte, none of the disgruntled House members have come out in the open for fear of reprisal.

Majority Leader Fredenil Castro and appropriations committee chairman Rolando Andaya Jr. have both acknowledged that infrastructure funds were re-allocated to make the distribution “more equitable.”

They said the districts of former House leaders received huge allocations, while other constituencies were given only small sums.

Andaya said the ratified bicam report contained an “omnibus motion” authorizing the staff of the House appropriations committee and the Senate finance committee to “effect corrections of typographical, grammatical and printing errors, as well as the necessary adjustments as a consequence of the amendments (approved by the conference committee).”

Andaya earlier released a list of the original infrastructure allocations contained in the President’s budget proposal. Topping the list was former speaker Pantaleon Alvarez with P8.4 billion. Basilan was in the bottom with P408 million.

“Is this allocation equitable?” Andaya asked. 

His district had P862 million in the list, while Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had P1.4 billion. Villafuerte had P2.7 billion and Castro had P2.2 billion.