(Eagle News) — Senate President Tito Sotto on Friday, April 12, said he would support a veto by President Rodrigo Duterte of the entire budget bill for 2019.
“Do (you) remember that that was my original suggestion when it came to my attention that the House leaders were being difficult,” Sotto said a day after President Duterte said he would do the same “pag talagang tagilid yan,” referring to the Congress-transmitted budget bill.
Duterte said so far, his legal office was studying the bill, which is also the House-enrolled bill which senators had criticized.
Sotto had signed the House-enrolled bill, which Senator Panfilo Lacson said contained illegal “alignments” made post-Congress ratification, but with “strong reservations,” leaving it up to the President to decide whether to veto the controversial provisions of the bill.
House appropriations chair Rolando Andaya Jr. denied this, saying these were mere “itemizations” that would make the budget bill easier to scrutinize.
According to Sotto, a reenacted budget that would result from a veto of the entire 2019 budget bill would “erase” the pork barrel in the same, if it was indeed there.
“Anyway, we can pass a new one in the next Congress with new leaders,” he said.
