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Senate, House ratify 2020 national budget, up for Duterte signature

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ABS-CBN News

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2019/news/12/11/20191209-duterte-afp-generals-oathtaking-minb-22.jpg"/><figcaption>President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during an oath-taking event in Malacanang. The P4.1 trillion national budget is up for his signature after lawmakers ratified the proposal on Dec. 11, 2019. Karl Norman Alonzo, Presidential Photo/file</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA -- The Senate and the House of Representatives on Wednesday ratified the P4.1 trillion national budget for 2020, which will be up for President Rodrigo Duterte&#x27;s signature.A bicameral conference approved the budget proposal earlier on Wednesday. Sen. Panfilo Lacson skipped the signing of the bicameral report on Wednesday due to alleged &quot;last minute insertions.&quot;Debates over alleged &quot;insertions&quot; in the 2019 budget delayed its passage and dragged economic growth momentum in the first 6 months of the year.Lacson said the &quot;insertions&quot; were detailed in a USB drive that his office received on Tuesday from the House of Representatives.He said the list contained a &quot;list&quot; file of 742 projects worth P16.345 billion, which were among 1,253 budget items worth P83.219 billion that were included in a &quot;source&quot; file. The lawmaker said he could not determine which of the 2 sets of projects were &quot;inserted at the last minute prior to the bicam signing&quot; because &quot;there was no preliminary explanation from the House regarding the 2 files.&quot; &quot;What is clear though is that there are still lump sums and vaguely described projects that are now part of the bicam report,&quot; he said in a statement.The provinces which got the biggest share of the alleged insertions are Albay, P670 million; Cavite, P580 million; Sorsogon, P570 million; Batangas, P502 million; Bulacan, P440 million; Pangasinan, P420 million; and Cebu, P410 million. Lacson claimed &quot;there are more corruption driven insertions in the files sent to us that I have not mentioned.&quot; The senator said he would inform the budget department and Duterte about the alleged anomaly.&quot;I hope the President will again exercise his political will in vetoing line items that will obviously waste people&#x27;s tax money,&quot; he said. &quot;It is revolting to note that legislators keep on dipping their dirty fingers on our national budget in spite of pending cases involving the same issue,&quot; he said. The Senate and the House will go on break on Dec. 20.<div>-- Report from Robert Mano, ABS-CBN News</div>

A bicameral conference approved the budget proposal earlier on Wednesday. Sen. Panfilo Lacson skipped the signing of the bicameral report on Wednesday due to alleged "last minute insertions."

A bicameral conference approved the budget proposal earlier on Wednesday. Sen. Panfilo Lacson skipped the signing of the bicameral report on Wednesday due to alleged "last minute insertions."