SEN. Panfilo Lacson yesterday pressed for full disclosure of the names of real estate owners and private companies which stand to benefit from the road right of way (RROW) payments by the government during floor interpellations on the P112.36-billion public works outlay for 2009.

Lacson noted that at least P200 million remains untouched as part of the road right of way (RROW) funds under the 2008 budget and will likely be replicated under the 2009 budget. He said the list would reveal if politicians or private companies would benefit from the RROW transactions.

The P200 million will reportedly go to RROW payments for road projects in Cavite and Laguna. He said any party or group should be also allowed to inspect the road projects and the RROW payees for transparency.

For next year, some P6.93 billion was earmarked for priority road projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways and total infrastructure expenditure is P177 billion.

Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, Senate finance chief, said they will take note of Lacson’s suggestions.

Sen. Mar Roxas said he wants the Department of Agriculture to submit to the Senate an outline of agriculture projects funded by lump sum allocations in the 2009 budget to prevent a repeat of the P728-million fertilizer fund scam and other anomalies associated with the DA.

"The DA must be as specific as possible in outlining its various projects funded by lump sums. We need to know where these will be spent, how much will be spent and for what purpose," he said. "It is crucial to spend properly during this economic downturn, to ensure that our people continue to eat well. If we can keep up rice production, we will have gotten through the worst of it."

Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said the DA is prepared to give an accounting of the P131-billion Agriculture and Food Modernization Act (AFMA) budget that Sen. Lacson earlier claimed serves as the Palace’s pork barrel.

"I conferred with Secretary Arthur Yap, who said that given time, he is willing to give an accounting," Dureza said.

Lacson, during the Senate deliberations on the DA budget, has said that Malacañang might have availed of the P131-billion potential pork barrel funds from the AFMA appropriations that had accumulated since 2002. He said the DA budget for 2009 is "very small" at P3.6 billion but the special purpose funds in the agency’s budget, particularly the AFMA, amounts to P35.4 billion and is under the discretion of the agriculture secretary.

Lacson said the AFMA has accumulated to over P131 billion since 2002 and "I don’t believe the secretary will utilize funds of AFMA without clearance of the President."

Sen. Loren Legarda batted for an increase of 30 percent in the budget for education to lift the country’s public school system from mediocrity.

Legarda said the budget for education can be raised by trimming the allocation for debt service. She noted that the country’s per capita educational investment is one of the lowest in Asia which has resulted in the Philippines being overtaken in education by other countries, such as India, whose educational system has been so impressive that it is now being considered by Japan experts to be its role model in education.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, on the other hand, recommended a P13 million cut on the budget of Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, saying she suspects its chair Bayani Fernando might use the money to support his announced presidential bid for 2010.

She cited as evidence Fernan-do’s giant posters around and outside Metro Manila. "Mr. Fernando is engaged in an unlawful premature campaign, and it is highly likely that he might use the funds of the MMDA."