{"id":147961,"date":"2018-01-22T03:03:56","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T08:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=147961"},"modified":"2018-01-23T01:41:02","modified_gmt":"2018-01-23T06:41:02","slug":"alvarez-on-zero-budget-for-anti-fedaralism-solons-its-only-a-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/22\/alvarez-on-zero-budget-for-anti-fedaralism-solons-its-only-a-joke\/","title":{"rendered":"Alvarez on zero budget for anti-fedaralism solons: It’s only a joke"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez (PPD\/Toto Lozano)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA, Philippines \u2014 House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said he is only joking when he threatened to give zero budget to local politicians who would oppose the government\u2019s plan of shifting to a federal form of government.<\/p>\n

In an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel\u2019s Headstart, Alvarez said that his statements during the oathtaking ceremony of Iloilo politicians who jumped to the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino \u2013 Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) from Liberal Party that he would cut their budget if they would not back the proposed federalism shift mean nothing but \u201cempty words.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you make a speech, you need to put a little of a joke. That\u2019s the thing. I don\u2019t know why they took it seriously. I am only joking,\u201d Alvarez said in Filipino.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, it was only being misinterpreted by some. If those words really mean nothing or empty words, it is only a joke. Right?\u201d Alvarez added.<\/p>\n

The speaker also said he can\u2019t do the budget cut alone because budget proposal passes through the Senate.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople keep on reacting even when they know I can\u2019t do it because the budget passes through the Senate. Those are empty words actually. Empty words because I know I can\u2019t decide alone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Alvarez said he would respect the decision of representatives who would not support the efforts to amend the 1987 Constitution to pave way for the government\u2019s shift to federalism, threatening, however, that their provinces would get zero funding because of their decision.<\/p>\n

Alvarez, however, assured the locals of Iloilo that they would not get \u201czero budget\u201d since the majority of their political leaders already switched to PDP-Laban.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thankful that they already jumped to our party and that their representatives joined the majority so they will not get zero budget,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alvarez made the statements days after the lower chamber adopted a resolution to convene as a constituent assembly that will draft a new Constitution.<\/p>\n

However, the Senate maintained that it will not meet with the House as a constituent assembly without the guarantee of separate voting.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque has distanced Malaca\u00f1ang from Alvarez\u2019s pronouncements, saying the executive branch would not meddle with the deliberations of the Congress on the charter change because of the separation of powers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA, Philippines \u2014 House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said he is only joking when he threatened to give zero budget to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":147970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[38640,15123,1146,33825,31449,39934],"class_list":["post-147961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-federal-form-of-government","tag-house-speaker-pantaleon-alvarez","tag-liberal-party","tag-partido-demokratiko-pilipino-lakas-ng-bayan-pdp-laban","tag-presidential-spokesperson-harry-roque","tag-zero-budget","mauthors-carlo-jacob-molina","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}