Solons defend P50-M fund but dole-outs face House rejection By Angie M. Rosales and Gerry Baldo 10/12/2010

Solons defend P50-M fund but dole-outs face House rejection

By Angie M. Rosales and Gerry Baldo 10/12/2010

Legislators backed Speaker Feliciano Belmonte’s assertion that the P50 million allotment from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) should not be considered as pork barrel while 37 members of the House of Representatives signed a manifesto yesterday thumbing down the P21.9 billion proposed fund for President Aquino’s cash transfer program.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said the P50-million additional funds for each lawmaker under the proposed P1.6 trillion national budget for 2011 was meant to even the field in the distribution of key infrastructure.

“I checked that issue, from what I gathered, there’s no change (in the allotment),” he told reporters, referring to the lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). The reason behind it, he said, was merely to level the playing so to speak.

“The allotment for each member of the House (of Representatives) is still P70 billion and the only change is it is not really an additional PDAF, that P50 million. It was agreed upon that each engineering district, which is equivalent to a congressional district, will have at least P50 million allotted to that district, automatic, for the benefit of the people in that engineering district,” he said..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20101012hed5.html