To the Daily Tribune: We wish to set the record straight regarding your commentary that insinuated motives – again – to Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson’s exposing of questionable items in the P4.5-trillion budget for 2021.

November 24, 2020

The EDITORIAL BOARD
The Daily Tribune
Makati City

Dear Sir/Madam:

We wish to set the record straight regarding your commentary that insinuated motives – again – to Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson’s exposing of questionable items in the P4.5-trillion budget for 2021.

As he has done since he earned a Senate seat in 2001, Senator Lacson continues to do his job of scrutinizing the budget bill to make sure our limited resources will be used properly. This is more so for 2021, when we will feel the effects of the pandemic on all sectors, particularly the economy. It is thus downright malicious to accuse him of milking the budget issue.

Second, Senator Lacson has been careful not to link names to the questionable items in the budget. His list of hefty infrastructure appropriations for some districts, which he presented during his interpellation of the DPWH budget last Nov. 18, came from the House of Representatives. This is so attention on the issue will not be diverted to personalities.

While issues on the budget can ultimately be settled during the bicameral conference committee, these issues should be made known to the public (whose taxes will fund the budget), instead of being buried in bicam committee meetings that are often held behind closed doors.

Given all these, no one can say Senator Lacson is barking up the wrong tree.

That said, the national budget is not about personalities. It is about being the lifeblood of the economy, if not the country itself. As such, it must be made free of inefficiency and corruption, more so in a year that needs us to – as the theme of the 2021 budget states – Reset, Rebound and Recover.

Joel Locsin
Media Relations Officer
Office of Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson