With a boost from Sen. Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson, civil society groups managed to help scrutinize and make the P5.024-trillion proposed budget for 2022 more responsive to people’s needs.
Social Watch Philippines and the Alternative Budget Initiative wrote to Lacson on Nov. 10, thanking him for endorsing their participation in the Senate Finance Committee hearings on the budget.
“We hope that you will continue to support our inclusive budget proposals that focus on the needs of the country’s most marginalized sectors, especially since they are the ones that were most affected by the pandemic, by sponsoring before the plenary deliberations and incorporating into the good Senator’s budgetary amendments to the FY 2022 General Appropriations Bill,” co-convenors Rene Raya, Ma. Victoria Raquiza and Jessica Cantos said in a letter to Lacson.
They also commended Lacson, who is running for President, for all his efforts in serving the country, as well as for believing in what Social Watch Philippines-Alternative Budget Initiative stands for.
Earlier, Lacson endorsed the SWP-ABI’s participation in the committee hearings of the Senate finance committee chaired by Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara on the budget bill.
Lacson also supported their “Budget Serye sa Senado” discussion on the budget, where he delivered the message that the pandemic underscores the need for an inclusive national budget.
Meanwhile, corruption issues will not stick to Partido Reporma chairman and standard-bearer Lacson or his family because he has hammered an ethos of fairness and responsibility to them, especially his sons Jay and Panfilo Jr. or “Pampi.”
In the second webisode of his “iPing TV” series on his YouTube channel Ping Lacson, the longtime senator recalled a case of supposed cement smuggling against Pampi.
“I’ve always hammered it into them, about scandals involving money, about corruption, whether dealing with the government or not,” Lacson said in the webisode shot at their native “kubo” hut at their farm in Cavite.
In 2019, Lacson filed Senate Bill 24, the “People’s Participation in the National Budget Process Act of 2019,” that provides privileges and incentives for accredited groups that take part in the budgeting process.
This aims to keep greedy parties from inserting “pork” and other inappropriate items into the national budget — as well as institutionalize the collaboration of legislature and civil society “to achieve a people-oriented budget as well as establish transparency and accountability in the budget process.”
“Even if there really wasn’t an issue… If you know of a crime, or an offense or smuggling, file a case. I won’t meddle with it,” the former national police chief added in the video with his two sons.
The official involved could do nothing as there really was no smuggling, since cement as a commodity is tax-free, Lacson added.
“I always teach them that it’s important, when you deal with your fellow man, especially in transactions, that you are fair. It doesn’t matter if you are outdone or taken advantage of, you should not cheat others,” the Partido Reporma chairman said.
In the first webisode of the iPing TV series titled “Disiplinang Lacson,” the senator’s sons, his wife Alice de Perio-Lacson, and longtime security aides shared their personal anecdotes about the veteran lawmaker as a strict disciplinarian but a good-natured human being overall.
It has gained over 18,000 views just a day after being posted.