THE Senate re-elected Sen. Panfilo Lacson to the chairmanship of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on Friday, more than a month after he resigned from the position over differences with some sectors on his handling of the flood control probe.
The plenary session re-elected Lacson to the position with no objections.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sherwin Gatchalian announced that the plenary deliberations on the 2026 budget, which was originally scheduled for November 14, would give way to the resumption of the Blue Ribbon Committee inquiry this Friday.
The Senate will begin plenary deliberations on Wednesday, November 12, with Gatchalian’s sponsorship speech, to be followed by the beginning of the actual deliberations the day after.
Gatchalian revealed that about half of the Senators proposed amendments to the budget, adding that all amendments will have to be openly discussed and complete with supporting documents.
“Well, yung mga individual amendments and all types of amendments, whether institutional amendments, other amendments, isa-submit sa committee officially. So pag-aaralan namin yun kung yung mga amendments nila ay unang una kailangan ng budget at second may fiscal space. So after that, ipapublish namin lahat yun. Kung ano yung mga accepted. Hindi lahat kasi maa-accept,” he said.
“Amendments and insertions, halos pareho yan eh. Parang-pareho na nga eh. So that’s why para walang gulo ang ginagamit ko, amendments, anytime, ipasok lang sa amin,” the senator added.
“Ang nirerequest namin ngayon, maraming supporting documents na dapat i-justify mo.”
Gatchalian shared what he thinks are illegal insertions.
