{"id":239937,"date":"2019-12-13T19:49:30","date_gmt":"2019-12-14T00:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=239937"},"modified":"2019-12-13T19:49:30","modified_gmt":"2019-12-14T00:49:30","slug":"no-pork-parked-funds-in-ratified-2020-budget-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/12\/13\/no-pork-parked-funds-in-ratified-2020-budget-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"No pork, parked funds in ratified 2020 budget bill"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Committee chairman Isidro Ungab said the 2020 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) is in compliance with the \u201cexpress instructions\u201d of President Rodrigo Duterte as it would be a powerful tool to help deliver his goal of a \u201csafe and comfortable life for all.\u201d (File photo<\/a>: Isidro Ungab\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee on Friday said the version of the PHP4.1-trillion 2020 budget approved by the bicameral conference committee and ratified by both Houses of Congress contains no pork and no parked funds.<\/p>\n

Committee chairman Isidro Ungab said the 2020 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) is in compliance with the \u201cexpress instructions\u201d of President Rodrigo Duterte as it would be a powerful tool to help deliver his goal of a \u201csafe and comfortable life for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ungab said the budget process was undertaken with \u201cutmost transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt represents the clear 2020 vision of the President and his economic strategy anchored on increased spending in infrastructure and human capital development. The projects outlined under the 2020 budget will help sustain our status as one of Asia\u2019s best-performing economies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAttempts to label the 2020 budget pork-ridden by constantly redefining \u2018pork\u2019 is unfair and misleading. The Supreme Court has already declared pork barrel funds as unconstitutional and clearly defined what constitutes pork. The 2020 budget is pork-free,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The lawmaker noted that all changes made in the GAB were aligned with the President\u2019s priorities and were based on the recommendations of the Cabinet Departments and other government agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth houses ratified the budget bill. The representatives of both the Senate and House agreed on the amendments to, and final version of, the 2020 GAB at the bicameral conference committee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said there is no room for unconstitutional provisions in the proposed 2020 national budget.<\/p>\n

Panelo made this assurance following concerns raised by Senator Panfilo Lacson that members of the House of Representatives allegedly made last-minute insertions prior to the signing of the budget by the bicameral conference committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cProvisions in the budget that run counter to the Constitution will be vetoed by the President, there is no change in that policy,\u201d Panelo said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, like Panelo, earlier said the President will not hesitate to use his veto powers as he did when he vetoed the 2019 national budget.<\/p>\n

The House approved House Bill No. 4228, or the General Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2020, on Sept. 20 while the Senate passed its version on Nov. 27.<\/p>\n

Duterte earlier said he wanted to avoid a repeat of the nearly four-month delay in 2019 budget enactment due to an impasse between the House and Senate on realignments made by some House members.<\/p>\n

In his veto message on the 2019 budget, Duterte said he would \u201cnot tolerate any attempts to circumvent the Constitution\u201d, and vetoed PHP95.3 billion items of appropriations under the budget because they were \u201cnot within programmed priorities\u201d.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The chairman of the House Appropriations Committee on Friday said the version of the PHP4.1-trillion 2020 budget approved by …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":239938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-filane-mikee-cervantes","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239937","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=239937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239939,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239937\/revisions\/239939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}