MARIING kinondena ni Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco si Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano at mga kaalyado nito dahil sa “pag-railroad” sa 2021 pro- posed P4.5-trillion national budget na nagresulta sa suspensyon ng plenary sessions hanggang Nobyembre 16.

Sinabi ni Velasco, ang ginawa ng kampo ni Cayetano ay salungat sa commitment nito na gawing bukas, transparent at makabuluhan sa taongbayan ang panukalang pambansang pondo.

“As leader of the ruling PDP- Laban, which represents the big- gest bloc of the Super Majority Coalition in Congress, we highly denounce the unilateral acts of Speaker Allan Peter Cayetano and his handful of allies in the House of Representatives that led to the hurried approval of the 2021 national budget without the going through the budget process stipulated in the Constitution and the suspension of the plenary session until November 16, 2020,” ani Velasco.

Hindi kasi aniya nabigyan nang sapat na panahon silang mga kongresista para suriin ng husto ang budget ng iba’t ibang ahensya at kagawaran ng pamahalaan.

Malinaw na hindi aniya nasunod ang wastong budget process at pro- cedure at diskusyon dahil sa railroading na ginawa nila Cayetano.

Binatikos din ni Velasco ang aniya’y “flawed procedure” na ginawa ng kampo ni Cayetano nang baguhin ng mga ito ang ap- proved calendar ng Kongreso na nagsasabing sa Oktubre 17 pa ang suspension ng kanilang plenary session.

Paglabag aniya ito sa Section 16, Article 6 ng 1987 Constitution na tumutukoy sa hinggil sa inter-parliamentary courtesy sapagkat ang mahabang suspen- sion ng plenary session ay dapat na may consent ng Senado.

Ang “unilateral acts” na ito ni Cayetano ay nangangahulugan lamang na wala na rin tiwala rito ang mayorya ng mga kongresista.

“He knows that the Super Majority Coalition is no longer with him in view of the glaring and blatant inequities in the dis- trict budget allocation for 2020 and 2021 where the lion shares only belong to few Congressmen who are his allies and minions; In view of the members’ resent- ment in the series of recent strip- ping off from key positions of House leaders who are not aligned to his autocratic style of management and administration of the House of Representatives,” ani Velasco.

“The foregoing acts manifest Speaker Cayetano’s extreme de- sire to hold on and hang on to power in clear defiance of President Duterte’s desire for the pas- sage of fair and equitable bud- get that serves nothing but the interests of the Filipino people,” dagdag pa nito sa statement.