(Photo grabbed from Inquirer.net)
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – “It’s for flood control!”
Thus, said House of Representatives majority leader Rolando Andaya, Jr. (1st district, Camarines Sur) as he denied that the large allocations for his district and that of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (2nd district, Pampanga) in the 2019 budget allocations is pork barrel.
Andaya made the clarification in an interview on Thursday aired over radio station dzMM.
Andaya said the regional directors of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) had requested the large budgets for road projects in his district and flood mitigation in Pampanga.
During the budget deliberations on Wednesday, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said, “the blessed few” cornered the bulk of congressional insertions under the General Appropriations bill for next year.
He said, “a favored congressman from Camarines Sur will be getting a P1.9 billion worth of projects for next year.”
He also said some P2.4-billion pork barrel was allocated for “the congresswoman” in the second district of Pampanga showing a slide of Lubao, Guagua, Porac and Floridablanca projects.
But Andaya said the DPWH had requested the funding for his district and that for Pampanga because the Pampanga River overflows its banks during rainy season and also floods Bulacan.
Andaya said it’s the House Appropriations Committee, not Speaker Arroyo, that is responsible for the P4.3 billion alleged “pork barrel” in the proposed 2019 national budget.
Andaya said Arroyo earlier instructed the House Appropriations Committee to equally give P60 million to each congressman.
He also denied that he asked additional funding for road projects in his district.
