Upping the ante of his crusade against pork barrel fund, Senator Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday urged his fellow lawmakers to make the amendments to the country’s national budget for year 2020 open to public.

Instead of “scrawling them on napkins,” Lacson said lawmakers should make records available to scrutiny by posting the amendments on their websites.

“We should make everything public. That includes all amendments we submit, whether institutional or individual. We have our own websites, we should use them for this purpose, as I did for the 2019 budget,” Lacson said.

“Most if not all lawmakers maintain websites. Why not post their amendments there, for the public to scrutinize?” the lawmaker insisted.

The Senator lamented that in past years, some lawmakers introduced amendments to their finance or appropriations chairpersons without deliberation.

“Instead of having their amendments undergo scrutiny in floor deliberations, some lawmakers propose their amendments verbally, or even scribble them on napkins,” he said.

Pushing transparency in the crafting of the national budget, Lacson said the people have the right to know where their taxes go, especially amid a growing national debt that now stands at more than P7.9 trillion.

“The national budget involves the people’s money. It should benefit the people and not a few senators or congressmen or even government officials who implement projects. And the budget is funded by our taxes, as well as borrowings if our tax collections fall short,” he said.

Lacson on Monday claimed that the 2020 National Budget is not “pork-free.”

He cited the presence of “parked” allocations totaling more than P20 billion in the House of Representatives’ version of the P4.1-trillion budget.

Lacson said the questionable funds were in the details of the budget for the Department of Public Works and Highways and Department of the Interior and Local Government.