House, Senate set P200-B cap on budget ‘insertions’

THE HOUSE of Representatives and the Senate agreed on Wednesday night to put a P200-billion cap on so-called “insertions” from various agencies in the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019.

The third day of the bicameral deliberations took off from Monday’s public hearing, which uncovered P198 billion worth of “institutional amendments” on the part of the Senate, almost 25 percent higher than the House’s P51-billion “pork” allocations.