I laud the Supreme Court for its decision to allow Sen. Grace Poe to run for president in the May 9 national elections. The Supreme Court once again … - Francis Escudero

In compliance with the Supreme Court ruling on the Disbursement Acceleration Program, a new general provision on the “Meaning of Augmentation” is proposed by your committee in Sec. 69 which states that savings cannot be used to augment a non-existent P/A/P through the use of an appropriation not otherwise authorized by the subject GAA, and that the existence of an appropriation for an allotment class, whether for Personal Services, MOOE, or Capital Outlays, in a P/A/P is necessary for purposes of augmentation.

This bill, if passed into law, will serve as a deterrent to those who will take advantage of the poverty situation in order to profit from selling our women and children. This is one of the most repulsive crimes in society today, and we must not allow our women and children to fall prey to these vultures.

I write to tender my irrevocable resignation as Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee on Finance and as co-chairman of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Public Expenditures, effective immediately.