Sotto: Senate won’t probe Diokno, ‘too many things on our plate’
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2019 03:02:49 +0000
THE Senate is keeping a distance from an investigation by the House of Representatives into the alleged flood control fund scam involving Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno and his in-laws, its president, Sen. Vicente Sotto 3rd, said on Monday.
Sotto said the House should have raised the issue during the time the budget was at the Senate.
“We have too many things on our plate to join the issues being raised. We are done with interpellations on the general principles and that would have addressed them,” he said.
The Senate chief stressed that they could look into it in the next Congress pressed on the issue.
The Senate resumed session following a month-long legislative break, but will again adjourn on February 9 for the midterm-election campaign period and to return on May 20.
Andaya accused Diokno of colluding with a senior official from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in the so-called flood control projects scam.
Diokno has repeatedly denied Andaya’s accusations against him, calling Andaya’s latest slew of allegations as illusory, wrong, and not grounded on facts.
Sotto on Friday expressed optimism that the Senate and the House of would be able to hammer out a consolidated version of the 2019 budget bill this January.
He said that Congress would have President Rodrigo Duterte sign the 2019 budget measure by the end of this month.
The Senate chief added that he was confident that all would be executed in February, including the salary adjustments for civilian and military personnel programmed for 2019. JAVIER JOE ISMAEL
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