MANILA - Sen. Francis Escudero defended the move of Senator Jinggoy Estrada to allocate funds to three local government units (LGUs), with P100 million going to Manila where his father is mayor. Escudero said Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada had pointed out that the city government of Manila is bankrupt and needs additional funds. "We looked into the legality of it and saw it is legal to allocate funds to an LGU. through the assistance of local government unit (ALGU). That is an item that has been in the budget for the longest time. We didn't create it to accommodate Sen. Estrada," he said. He also said he sees nothing wrong with Sen. Nancy Binay allocating P300 million to the National Housing Authority (NHA), which is headed by her father, Vice-President Jejomar Binay. He said NHA used to have a P5 billion calamity fund, which was reduced to zero for 2014. "Hindi naman tama yun. The NHA needs to do certain stuff in connection with a calamity. Hindi na kami nakahanap ng fiscal space equivalent to P5 billion so we only gave what Sen Nancy proposed which is roughly over P200 million," he said. Escudero said that the Senate finance committee now names lawmakers that allocate funds to different agencies. Only Estrada has allocated funds to a local government unit, he said. "Kung kaninong idea yun, ia-attribute namin yun. Ipagmalaki mo, ipagsigawan mo. Bakit mo ikakahiya? May attribution kami. Fifteen senators have also asked that their PDAF be deleted from the national budget after the Supreme Court said the discretionary funds are unconstitutional. Asked if he would have allocated any of his funds to Bicol, he said: "No. That would be legal but it would leave a bad taste in the mouth." ANC HEADSTART, March 10, 2014
