Castro denies allegations House leadership removed P92.3 billion from proposed nat’l budget

(Eagle News)–House Majority Leader Fredenil Castro on Saturday, March 30, denied the House of Representatives’ leadership took away P92.3 billion from the proposed national budget.

According to Castro, “there is no truth” to the allegations hurled by Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte that the P92.3 billion was also  distributed to favored members.

“I can say with authority that Rep. Villafuerte is peddling fake news. I pity my good friend L-Ray, but I understand where he is coming from,” Castro said.

According to Castro, Villafuerte was one of those who would have stood to gain “billions in projects had we not corrected the inequities in the National Expenditure Program.”

Castro said Villafuerte was allocated P2.7 billion by the previous House leadership.

Of this, he said P1.2 billion was “included in the P75-billion insertion by the former DBM boss, which congressmen questioned and opposed during the budget deliberation.”

He said apart from Villafuerte, “more than two dozens of select congressmen were also [given] huge allocation ranging from P3 billion to P8 billion per district by previous House leaders.”

He said based on the current guidelines, “we made sure allocations were equitably distributed” as they could “no longer allow the old practice of the previous House leadership, which dispenses programs and projects based on loyalties and votes on legislative measures.”

He said this was  the reason there was zero allocation for several congressional districts before.”

“If we have not resorted to this, the mind-boggling allocations for previous House leaders and their pet districts, plus DBM insertions the DPWH were clueless about, would have remained intact,” he said.

Castro also reiterated the budget bill transmitted by the House to the Senate was constitutional and transparent, noting that the list had been itemized per district.

“If Rep. Villafuerte and other allies of the previous House leadership are not happy with their share of the national budget, there are more than 200 congressmen who think otherwise,” he said.