Each legislative district would get at least P500 million under the 2020 budget, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano said yesterday but he made clear that the money is not pork or the lump sum allocation declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

“The Speaker stressed that it is not pork. It’s a regular budget of the Department of Public Works and Highway (DPWH) as a result of the ‘Build, Build, Build’ (program),” a media officer from Cayetano’s office said.

In the radio interview, the Speaker said he appealed to lawmakers to put on hold their individual amendments on the budget bill, as legislative districts have received a huge budget.

“We have talked to congressmen and explained to them that the funds for each district had increased as a result of ‘Build, Build, Build’ where some places received bigger projects but still the projects were substantial. The smallest is when you lump DepEd (Department of Education) DPWH, Department of Agriculture that will reach almost P500 million per district,” Cayetano stressed.

“The reason for this is that the entire budget is huge, at P4.1 trillion. So I discussed this with the House members to focus on institutional projects which is usually what the Senate does,” Cayetano noted.

He added the House is now waiting for the intitutional amendments of the Senate.

The Speaker said the House still wanted to hold a bicameral conference committee hearing on the budget bill as he stressed the need for further realignment of funds.

Senator Panfilo Lacson earlier suggested to the Senate to adopt the House of Representatives’ version of the budget bill.

The Senator said there will be no need for a bicameral conference committee hearing as he does not see pork so far in the House’s version of the budget, further noting that some lawmakers could use the said hearing to insert pork.

Cayetano appealed to his Senate counterpart to speed up its dudget deliberations so the Senate and the House could begin its joint deliberation on December.

“Well, I am hoping and praying that Senate President (Tito) Sotto and Sen. (Sonny) Angara that by the end of the month it will be approved so that we will hold the bicam on the first week of December,” he added.

House ways and means chair and Albay Rep. Joey Salceda earlier said legislative districts will each get P100 million under the national budget. He later retracted this and said districts will not get equal funding.

Cayetano repeatedly stated that the 2020 General Appropriations Bill is pork free.