Palace says the 2019 budget will be ”pork free”

February 8, 2019

Malacanang assures the public that the ratified 2019 budget will be “pork free”.

In a press briefing Friday, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said they will go through each and every item in the general appropriations act once it reach the office of the President.

“Everything legal here because obviously the last thing we would want anyone to do is to question it in the Supreme Court and we want this budget clean and we want this budget implemented,” Nograles said.

He said President Rodrigo Duterte will be waiting for Congress' ratification of the 2019 budget.

“If it is ratified today by both Houses of Congress then it will be transmitted to the president and us on the executive branch, meaning the president and perhaps with the assistance of (Budget) Sec. Ben Diokno will go through each and every page of the budget,” said Nograles.

“We will go through each and every item, and certainly the president has the power to exercise his line item veto as he has previously done in past budgets. And obviously if there is anything illegal or irregular there then the president will know what to do,” he added.

Though the budget was not discussed per se, Nograles said a report was made on the status of the budget.

“We all know and understand how important the budget is to boosting our economic growth and translating that to programs, activities and projects that will redound to the benefit of our citizens,” he said.

The proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019 faces challenge in the Congress after they found alleged irregular fund insertions. Ella Dionisio/DMS