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P9.6B DND funds 'sleeping' at PITC: Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon says he intends to file a resolution to examine further the engagement of the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) as a procurement agent with the Department of National Defense (DND) after the discovery that P9.6 billion DND funds are parked with PITC since 2017. Drilon made this statement during the hybrid plenary deliberation on the proposed P215.7 billion budget of DND, Friday, November 20, 2020. Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who is defending the DND budget, agreed with Drilon, saying that under this set up, the obligation rate of DND would be quite misleading because the money will be treated as obligated when in fact, the funds are lying idle with the PITC. “There should be a more detailed examination of this set up which we cannot do at this stage because we are talking about the budget; we have limited time on this. I am appalled that P9.6 billion at least, is in PITC’s hands, aging to go as far back as three years ago. Money is sleeping there,” Drilon said. (Screen grab/ Senate PRIB)