Latest news with #Lacson
Filipino Times
22-05-2025
- Business
- Filipino Times
Lacson supports marcos' budget oversight, hontiveros warns of constitutional limits
Senator-elect Panfilo 'Ping' Lacson and Senator Risa Hontiveros are at odds over President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s plan to observe the upcoming national budget deliberations. The Department of Budget and Management earlier said the President intends to monitor the entire budget process to ensure alignment with government priorities. Lacson welcomed the move, saying it could strengthen discipline in Congress—as long as Marcos does not interfere in bicameral conference committee discussions. 'It will send a clear and very strong signal to the members of Congress not to make a mockery of our role in the budget process… and that we should not treat the national budget as individual prerogatives,' Lacson said in a statement. However, Hontiveros raised constitutional concerns over the president's involvement, stressing the limited role of the executive in the budget process. 'The power of the purse is wielded by Congress and Congress alone,' she said during a media forum. 'Walang papel ang presidente bilang observer sa bicam sa Konstitusyon. 'Pag pinilit 'yan baka magkaroon pa sila ng problema, baka kasuhan sila.'The debate comes amid legal challenges to the P6.3-trillion 2025 national budget, currently pending before the Supreme Court. Critics have flagged blank allocations and the zero subsidy for PhilHealth as signs of potential abuse.
GMA Network
20-05-2025
- Politics
- GMA Network
Lacson denies meeting with VP Sara
Senator-elect Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday denied that he had recently met with Vice President Sara Duterte. In a statement, Lacson said he had been receiving reports that he and another senator-elect supposedly met with Duterte. Lacson, who ran in the May 2025 midterm elections under the administration coalition, dismissed the information as 'outright malicious.' 'I vehemently deny and dismiss such rumor as absolutely false and outright malicious for one simple reason only: as an elected senator who is a potential senator-judge in the impeachment trial involving the Vice President should the said trial cross over to the 20th Congress, it is the height of impropriety to meet with her, being a respondent in the said impeachment case already transmitted to the Senate,' Lacson said. Under normal circumstances, newly elected senators or congressmen may pay a courtesy call on the vice president, Lacson said. He said he visited then-Vice President Leni Robredo in 2016 after winning his third Senate term. Duterte was impeached by the House of Representatives on February 5, with over 200 congressmen endorsing the complaint against her. She was accused of betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, and other high crimes. On February 19, Duterte filed a petition before the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the impeachment complaint. The impeachment trial will begin on July 30. — VBL, GMA Integrated News
GMA Network
19-05-2025
- Politics
- GMA Network
Lacson eyes ayuda integration under 4Ps
Senator-elect Panfilo ''Ping'' Lacson is eyeing to integrate all forms of ''ayuda'' or government aid under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) program. Lacson said this is part of his push for good governance, including the intensified scrutiny of the national budget bill. "This early, I have instructed my prospective legislative staff to draft an amendment to Republic Act 11310, the law on the 4Ps program, to expand it and address the sectors covered by the other forms of ayuda that have become confusing and have become a political tool used by some politicians for their campaigns, both during and outside of the campaign period," Lacson said in Filipino in a radio interview on Monday. "Expanding the 4Ps will be better because the 4Ps has a data-driven list of beneficiaries; unlike other ayuda programs that are indiscriminate and are prone to duplication like TUPAD, AKAP, AICS, and MAIP," he added. This as he lamented how some lawmakers had got involved in the distribution of at least one ayuda program, the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP), even if they are not part of the implementing agencies. He pointed out that 4Ps and its implementation involves studies conducted by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Labor and Employment, and other concerned implementing agencies. The 4Ps serves as a national poverty reduction strategy and a human capital investment program that provides conditional cash transfers to poor households for a maximum period of seven years, to improve the health, nutrition, and education of children aged 0 to 18. Aside from the integration of government assistance, Lacson vowed to also intensify his scrutiny of the national budget, including reviewing the implementation of this year's, which he described as "one of the most corrupt national budgets" he had seen in his 18 years in the Senate. "I will intensify my scrutiny of the budget after a three-year absence. I want to study the pattern of how the national budgets of the last three years were passed," he said. "I will prioritize scrutinizing the national budget, which is the lifeline of our economy. Without the budget, we cannot move," he added. The former Philippine National Police chief will also provide more support for local government units by giving them a possible one-percent rebate on their Value Added Tax (VAT) remittances to the national government. Lacson, who was part of the administration's Alyansa Para Sa Bagong Pilipinas, was proclaimed senator last Saturday at the Manila Hotel. —Anna Felicia Bajo/AOL, GMA Integrated News
