The 54 members of the Partylist Coalition Foundation Inc., second largest congressional bloc in the House of Representatives, have been mobilized to ensure the full observation of the “No Pork, No Parking, No Delay” policy laid down by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
“Speaker Cayetano can rely on the PCFI, we have his back in guaranteeing that the no pork, no parking, no delay policy is observed,” Deputy Speaker and 1PACMAN Partylist Rep. Michael L. Romero stated yesterday.
Romero stressed that supporting Cayetano achieve this mantra for the current Lower House budget deliberation is the surefire way of avoiding in 2020 a repeat of the notorious 2019 national budget delay.
“We can no longer afford to lose P77 billion per month because of the economic slow down triggered by the delayed implementation of the national budget. It has become imperative for us to make sure that each day of the coming year’s government operations is covered by the provisions of the 2020 General Appropriations Act,” stated the House official.
The PCFI leader decried the 2019 budget obstruction for contributing to the delayed implementation of vital government programs aimed at alleviating the conditions of the country’s poor.
Preventing the delayed approval and implementation of the 2020 national allocation will be the main preoccupation of PCFI members who have started scrutinizing “every nook and cranny” of the proposal.
“Despite these efforts, we have yet to find pork barrel funds, parked pork or any irregularity that will block early approval of the budget measure. But we have not stopped looking,” said Romero, one of the economic intellectuals in the Lower House.
He noted that accusations of hidden and parked pork barrel funds were the main cause of delay in the approval of the P3.7 trillion national budget for the current year.
Last week, Romero called on the Duterte government to submit at an earlier schedule the national budget, saying this can help Congress avoid any impediment in its approval.
According to the 1Pacman solon this year’s budget delay has caused government the equivalent of P463.6 billion in economic losses during the first six months of 2019 alone.
