Manila, Aug. 21 -- Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian on Friday said efforts to accelerate government infrastructure spending in the second half of the year should not come at the expense of safeguards meant to prevent questionable projects and waste of public funds.

"This highlights the need for stricter scrutiny of government infrastructure spending. The Senate will continue to uphold the transparency and accountability measures we embedded in the budget," Gatchalian said in a statement.

Government infrastructure disbursements fell 42.9 percent to PHP269.4 billion from January to May, from PHP471.5 billion in the same period last year, as tighter review, audit and validation procedures slowed payments for some projects, particularly ...