|
By Efren L. Danao, Senior Reporter
Emotions flared and the session was abruptly suspended on Monday
as Sen. Panfilo Lacson delivered his privileged speech against
Senate President Manuel Villar Jr.
The issue against Villar involves an alleged
“double entry” of P200 million in the 2008 budget for the
extension of C-5 from the South Luzon Expressway to Sucat, Parañaque
City.
But Lacson’s privileged speech was a dud, said
Sen. Alan Cayetano, who, like Lacson, is a member of the opposition
bloc in the Senate.
The so-called congressional insertions totaling
P400 million could gain from a formal investigation, the
government said also on Monday.
Such insertions were not a big deal, according
to Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile.
“We are very interested in knowing what
happened, and we support an inquiry to get to the bottom of this
controversy,” Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. said,
reiterating that Malacañang had nothing to do with the insertions.
The probe proposed by Enrile, according to
Andaya, was timely and necessary so that everyone could know what
really took place and who did the insertions.
He told reporters that Villar could not have had
a direct hand in the “double entry,” because Lacson, not the
Senate president, was the one who signed the final bicameral
committee report on the road project.
Andaya said he was holding the entire Congress
responsible for the current controversy because the whole
institution was the one directly involved in approving the 2008
budget.
When asked if he saw political color in
Lacson’s exposé, the Budget chief said it was possible since
Villar has just declared his plan to run for President in 2010.
Ping dares Villar
“Mr. Senate President, if you are telling us
to bring it on, just like a confident poker player with winning
cards would say, and I now say to you, all in,” Lacson said in his
privileged speech as he cited Villar’s earlier press conference
that he interpreted to be a declaration of war against him and some
of his colleagues.
Villar, the presiding officer, sat stoically as
Lacson flailed away at him and denounced insertions made in the 2008
budget.
He later made a statement where he agreed with
Lacson on the need to clear up the budget controversy.
Villar stressed that as Senate president, he had
no role in preparing the budget. He cited his rise from humble
beginnings in Manila’s poor Tondo district and that he had worked
all his life.
“But in my entire lifetime of work, I have
never stolen from the government, and I have no plans of doing so.
Whatever status of life I may be in now, whatever I may have earned,
everything came from my sweat and labor,” Villar said.
Not impressed
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano was not impressed by
Lacson’s privileged speech.
“I thought he was going to deliver a bomb. It
turned out to be a watusi,” he said.
Cayetano belittled Lacson’s claims of
wrongdoing in the allocation of P200 million twice but under
different items for the same stretch of road.
“What’s wrong with that? He should prove
first that it was wrong before making charges,” he said.
Cayetano claimed that the road-extension project
has a total cost of P2.1 billion, so even the P400 million would not
suffice to complete it.
He also dismissed Lacson’s enumeration of
congressional insertions as something that even a grade-school pupil
could do.
Enrile said Villar was the one who proposed to
amend the P200 million proposed by Malacañang for the C-5 extension
by augmenting it with P200 million more.
The chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance,
he noted that there is nothing wrong with the amendment, as the
total project cost is much more.
“I have added P300 million to the budget of
the Supreme Court. The House and the Senate can cut and realign the
budget proposed by the President as long as the total budget does
not exceed the President’s proposal,” Enrile said.
He added that of the 23 senators, only Cayetano,
Miriam Defensor Santiago, Benigno Aquino 3rd, Rodolfo Biazon, Jamby
Madrigal and Antonio Trillanes 4th did not submit any amendment to
the 2008 budget proposed by Malacañang.
Enrile also noted that “congressional
insertions” had gained a negative connotation.
“These are amendments which we consider
necessary for public interest. We cut and transfer funds. Many are
initiated not by members of Congress but by the public and the
agencies themselves who felt they did not get enough funds in the
budget proposed by Malacañang,” he said.
Enrile contended that there was nothing wrong in
giving more funds for the C-5 project in the same year and dismissed
the supposed double entry as just a human error.
Tempers flare
The floor deliberations heated up when Sen.
Joker Arroyo wanted to speak on a question of personal and
collective privilege, because his name was mentioned by Lacson and
his speech had questioned the integrity of the entire Senate and the
support staff.
When Lacson shouted that he still had the floor,
Sen. Arroyo shouted back that the Rules of Procedure give privileged
motion priority over privileged speeches.
Madrigal also protested Sen. Arroyo’s
insistence, saying she was supposed to be the first in line in
interpellating Lacson.
Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan called
for suspension of the session after a 30-minute break failed to ease
the tension.
“This will give everybody time to cool down.
Passion was getting high,” he said.
-- With Angelo S. Samonte
|
