Press Release
February 12, 2006
PALACE TOLD NOT TO IMPOSE LIMITATIONS ON QUESTIONS TO BE RAISED IN BUDGET HEARINGS
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban)
today said he welcomes Malacañang
s decision to lift the ban on
Cabinet members appearance before the budget hearings of the Senate
but stressed that it should not impose any condition or limitation
on the deliberations and questions that should be raised by
legislators.
Pimentel stressed that the Cabinet members and their subordinate
officials have nothing to fear about facing the senators if they
have nothing to hide and if they have not committed any misdeed in
the performance of their functions.
He said nobody can prevent the senators from asking questions from
the Cabinet members which they feel will help determine whether
government agencies are using the taxpayers money wisely.
Of course, everything that we ask is related to the budget. They
should stop telling us not to ask questions relative to the abuses
that have been committed in their turf, the minority leader said.
Pimentel said that the Palaces gag order has inflicted harm on the
government because the inevitable consequence is to derail the
passage of the 2006 national budget and to defy the powers of
Congress over the purse that is enshrined in the Constitution.
The President should uphold and recognize the powers of the Senate,
and of Congress in general to enact appropriation laws, and to
apportion the budget for our people, he said.
The minority leader warned that the budgetary allocations of certain
departments and agencies whose heads would refuse to attend the
Senate budget hearings are in danger of being cut off.
It would be difficult for the Senate to grant the budget being
requested by these departments if the Cabinet members concerned will
not show up to give their justification, Pimentel said.
He said the ban on the appearance of Cabinet members before budget
hearings is a manifestation that the President is no longer
interested in seeing the P1.06 trillion budget for the current
fiscal year approved.
And to my mind the whole rationale behind that attitude is not only
to create a dysfunction between the work of the Senate and the
executive department but also to make sure that the budget for 2006
is not approved on time which therefore means that the budget for
2005 is reenacted which they will now used as a pork barrel. That to
me is the name of the game here, the senator said.
Pimentel said this was the first time in the countrys history when
the President of the land herself is the one sabotaging the work of
a co-equal branch of government.
He said the Presidents unwarranted act indicates that she is
desperate to do everything to block the processes of law because
she is afraid that if the law is allowed to take its course, she
will wind up in jail.
The minority leader said President Arroyo must be removed from
office but it has to be done peacefully, not violently because to
my mind she is really the cause of all these problems.
Gloria is afraid that once she is out of power, she will be put in
jail for all the anomalies that her government is doing. And
therefore she is trying everything, including trespassing the powers
of the Senate, to prevent the anomalies from being uncovered,
Pimentel said. |