Amid the chaos and confusion in the early stretch of the country’s hosting of the 30th Southeast Asian Games, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon put on the gloves and hit Partylist Rep. Mikee Romero for saying that the Senate should be blamed for the delay in the release of the budget for the event.

Drilon, a seasoned lawmaker, slammed Romero, branding his accusation as “misplaced” and “baseless” since the delay of the approval of the SEA Games budget happened due to the unconstitutional insertion of around P95.3 billion worth of pork barrel fund.

The country’s SEA Games hosting is paying a handsome price for the delay.

With the P6.5-billion budget getting released only last April, the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) faced a massive challenge of coming up with sports facilities and reaching out to the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) for the procurement of equipment.

Some contracts also had to undergo re-bidding in accordance to the accounting rules and practice of the Department of Budget and Management and the Commission on Audit.

Romero, in a previous statement, said Drilon is “partly to blame” for the late release of the SEA Games fund.

He said had the Senate approved it immediately, the late construction of venues and facilities as well as late procurement of sports equipment could have avoided.

“Unfortunately, the Senate had a lot of problems and the budget was delayed about five to six months. Everything was caused by that delay. Sen. Drilon is partly to blame because the delay happened on their side, not on the House’s side,” said Romero, who represents 1Pacman Partylist.

“If they approved it and the budget was available as early as January, all these mishaps might not have happened.”

But Drilon fired back, saying that it was the illegal insertion of pork barrel fund that caused the deadlock.

“His accusations are misplaced and baseless to say the least,” said Drilon, who earlier flagged the Phisgoc, led by House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, for spending P55 million for the SEA Games cauldron.

“The delay in the passage of the 2019 national budget was caused by unconstitutional insertion blatantly made by the House of Representatives in the budget to the tune of P95.3 billion worth of pork barrel funds.”

Drilon said it was him who came up with the solution that ended the budget standoff.

“To refresh Mr. Romero’s memory, had it not been for the solution or compromise that I proposed, which enabled Senate President Vicente Sotto to sign and send the 2019 budget to Malacañang, we would not have resolved the 2019 budget impasse and we would have continued with a reenacted budget.”

“Had it not been for my efforts, certain quarters in the administration would have pushed through with recommending to the President the veto of the entire 2019 budget.”

Sotto rushed to Drilon’s defense, saying that the Senate has nothing to do with the delay.

In fact, the change of leadership in the House of Representative added to the impasse as it took a while before lawmakers came up with a decision tapping Cayetano as successor of former Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to be their new leader.

“Nope, we did not. The HoR (House of Representatives) did,” Sotto said.

“They changed leadership then submitted to us the GAB (General Appropriations Act) on 24 Nov., which is 55 days late of the usual, then amended the approved bicam (bicameral conference) version around February of this year which the Senate and the President did not allow.”