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By Maricel V. Cruz, Reporter
House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. on Tuesday
announced that the bicameral conference committee report on the
proposed P1.227-trillion national budget for 2008 will be out during
the resumption of Congress sessions on January 28.
Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay, the chairman of the
House Committee on Appropriations, and his counterpart, Sen. Juan
Ponce Enrile, have conducted several meetings to come up with a
reconciled version of the budget bill and resolve those contentious
issues involved in it, including the issue on pork barrel funds for
legislators.
“We will not have a reenacted budget anymore
after February 1,” de Venecia said.
De Venecia said that so far, discussions on the
budget bill are already “95-percent finished.”
“We have to commend Congressman Edcel Lagman
and Senator [Juan] Ponce Enrile for working overtime during the
holidays to finalize their understanding and their reconciliation of
the budget versions as approved by the House and as approved by the
Senate,” de Venecia pointed out.
The said adjustments in the budget bill which de
Venecia is referring to relates to debt service realignments to
social services, as executed by the House in the Palace-proposed
budget.
De Venecia also thumbed down the proposal to
either trim down or discard the pork barrel, otherwise known as the
Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
Instead, the House leader said what should be
done is “to further reform the process in the implementation of
the pork barrel system.”
“The PDAF is the pork barrel system [and] is
in place in Europe, is in place in America, is in place in Japan…
You cannot remove the pork barrel system… The pork barrel system
is really the public work entitlements of the congressmen and
congresswomen and of the senators,” de Venecia pointed out.
There is still nothing definite on the amount of
pork barrel that will be given to each member of Congress. However,
it could range from P40 to P70 million per representative, and P120
to P200 million per senator.
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