MANILA, Philippines — Just slash the budget “insertions.”Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III offered this solution on Thursday as he defended Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno from allegations he was behind the P75 billion insertion in the 2019 budget. At first, the Senate leader was baffled how the budget proposal contained in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) was suddenly called an insertion. Sotto stressed that it is not an insertion if the budget came from the original proposal of Malacanang or the Department of Budget. When told about the P75 billion budget for public works projects in the 2019 budget being made allegedly without the knowledge of President Rodrigo Duterte, Sotto said: “Eh ‘di i-cut. ADVERTISEMENTBut Diokno refuted Andaya’s claim, saying it was not an insertion as “it’s part of the budget process.” /jeREAD: Infra ‘insertions’ in 2019 budget P75B, not P51.8B — DioknoRead Next

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer December 13, 2018 05:15 UTC