MANILA, Philippines — Opposition lawmakers slammed Wednesday the move of the House of Representatives' leadership to remove funding for projects intended for districts of critical solons, saying that this was meant to "stifle dissent" and "silence the opposition." "This is clearly an attempt to stifle healthy dissent which ultimately benefits the people and our democracy. Alejano's sentiment was echoed by Rep. Edcel Lagman (Albay, 1st District) who described the move as a product of vengeance directed by the leadership towards critical lawmakers. This "steadfast critical dissent," according to Lagman, would leave the constituents of the 24 affected representatives "destitute of infrastructure projects." "Zero allocations are projected to punish and silence opposition legislators even as it is their constituencies who are deprived of the benefits of infrastructure development," he said.

Source: Philippine Star December 20, 2017 13:07 UTC