{"id":232327,"date":"2019-09-24T23:44:40","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T03:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=232327"},"modified":"2019-09-24T23:44:40","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T03:44:40","slug":"funds-for-congressmen-will-depend-on-districts-needs-palace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/09\/24\/funds-for-congressmen-will-depend-on-districts-needs-palace\/","title":{"rendered":"Funds for congressmen will depend on district\u2019s needs: Palace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this remark after Senator Panfilo \u201cPing\u201d Lacson expressed disapproval over the PHP100 million allocated for each congressman in the national budget. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Amid concerns over pork insertions in the proposed PHP4.1 trillion national budget for 2020, Malaca\u00f1ang said Tuesday allocations for each member of the House of Representatives should depend on the needs of a particular district.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this remark after Senator Panfilo \u201cPing\u201d Lacson expressed disapproval over the PHP100 million allocated for each congressman in the national budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think whether the budget is reasonable or not will depend on the needs of a particular district,\u201d Panelo said in a Palace briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be the priorities require that kind of amount in a particular district. Even if it\u2019s an urban place,\u00a0kung mayroong kailangan sa isang<\/em>\u00a0aspect\u00a0ng siyudad na \u2018yun na kailangan and kailangan nila<\/em>\u00a0that kind of amount,\u00a0ibibigay pa rin \u2018yun<\/em>\u00a0(if there is a need in that particular district and they need that kind of amount, they will give that),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Palace official, however, said whether or not the allocation for congressmen may be considered pork would depend on the evaluation of President Rodrigo Duterte \u201cconsistent with what the Constitution dictates and what the Supreme Court has decided on the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

He reassured that the President, who is also a lawyer, would scrutinize the proposed 2020 budget and veto it if found unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately it will be, one, the President first; and then if somebody questions it, it\u2019s the Supreme Court,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

On September 18, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda bared that each congressman will be receiving PHP100 million under the proposed national budget for 2020.<\/p>\n

Salceda, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, bared that of the amount, PHP70 million will be allocated for hard projects, such as infrastructure, while PHP30 million will be used for soft projects, such as medical assistance.<\/p>\n

Benefit of the doubt<\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Panelo said it would give House Speaker Alan Cayetano the benefit of the doubt when it came to defending another lawmaker’s call to increase the House of Representatives’ proposed PHP14 billion budget for 2020 by PHP1.6 billion.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Cavite 8th District Rep. Abraham Tolentino pushed for the additional PHP1.6 billion fund for the House.
\nCayetano rejected a blogger’s claim that the amount would be used for the House’s additional eight deputy speakers.<\/p>\n

The former senator explained that it would actually be used to improve the House\u2019s research capabilities and facilities; fund additional committees; and meet the requirement for the new Salary Standardization Law, among others.<\/p>\n

Panelo said the Palace would accept Cayetano\u2019s explanation unless there is evidence to prove the contrary.
\n\u201cWell,\u00a0kung iyan ang paliwanag ni<\/em>\u00a0(if that is the explanation of) Speaker Alan, then we\u2019ll have to give him the benefit of the doubt,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is such constitutional concept as in law jurisprudence that every official act is regular unless proof to the contrary is supplied,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Amid concerns over pork insertions in the proposed PHP4.1 trillion national budget for 2020, Malaca\u00f1ang said Tuesday allocations for …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":207213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232327","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232328,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232327\/revisions\/232328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}