Taguig Representative Alan Cayetano accused lawmakers of rushing him out of office as Speaker of the House of Representatives after allegedly increasing their funding for their projects in 2021.
“Hindi ko pa nakikita ‘yung Bicam [report] pero definitely maraming nadagdagan ng pondo from the NEP to the GAB. So ‘yung pong mga maingay laban sa akin, between P300 million to P1 billion nadagdagan na sila from the House to the Senate. Kaya pala atat na atat na nung October 14 na before that, mag-takeover,” Cayetano said at a learning hub gathering in Taguig City.
The NEP is the National Expenditure Program proposed by the government budget from President Rodrigo Duterte and submitted to Congress. GAB, on the other hand, is a bill for the 2021 national budget that contains amendments by lawmakers from the president’s proposal and they are sending it to the Senate.
Cayetano made the statement after Senator Panfilo Lacson said in a television interview that some districts of Speaker Lord Allan Velasco‘s allies have increased their allocations after a change in the House’s leadership.
Cayetano slams Velasco over speaker’s allies infra fund increase
“Kasi nga may mga pondong pinag-uusapan. But to be fair, not to myself, dahil ako naman ay okay naman ako, maganda naman ang takbo namin dito sa siyudad, wala naman akong hangarin na bumalik pa as Speaker, pero doon sa mga kasamahan ko, sa distrito nila na sinasabing malapit ka kay Alan bakit wala tayong masyadong project? ‘Yun po ang mga number nila, 155, 204, 219, 193, 154, at ang problema sila pa yung mga nagtrabaho talaga,” Cayetano insisted.
Cayetano was referring to his allies’ ranking in relation to the amount of funds allocated to their respective districts.
“Ngayon po, let us wait and let us see ano ang magiging pagkilos ng membership kasi ang problema sa House, ‘yung black eye ng isa, black eye ng buong institusyon, black eye ng lahat ng kongresista. Pero hindi naman po lingid sa ating kaalaman na meron naman talagang corruption,” said Cayetano.
“Ang advice ko rin, lalo po sa DOJ, unahin nyo yung mga obvious. Isulat mo lahat ng project, let us say P50 million above,” he added.