SENATE NOW BACKS ‘FISCAL AUTONOMY’

It looks like President Benigno Aquino III will not have his way, after all. A projected P101.5-billion in what is being billed as “pork barrel” in the President’s proposed national budget will be cut by almost P5 billion.

Faced with a Malacañang attempt to impound funds of constitutional bodies, the chairman of the Senate committee on finance on Thursday agreed to respect the “fiscal autonomy” of those bodies and prevent the inclusion of their budgetary appropriations in the controversial miscellaneous personnel benefit fund (MPBF).