Pimentel said the two chambers of Congress must exercise their constitutional powers to appropriate funds for government operations, guided by the principle that public interest should take precedence over any other considerations.
"If the 2006 budget is to be passed, there must be revisions that are good for the country, not for the good of the President, the members of Congress, and other officials," he said.
Pimentel said the stalemate can be broken if Malacañang would allow the bicameral conference committee to look for a mutually acceptable compromise between the Senate and House.
"The Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Agrarian Reform likewise need funds that could be sourced from the bloated allocations for other departments including the Office of the President," he said.
If the 2006 General Appropriations Bill is not passed, the Department of Education will be deprived of P11.5 billion in additional funds intended to improve the school system, he added.
Meanwhile, Pimentel has expressed concern over the security implications of having Filipino mercenaries fight under the American flag in Iraq.
"Our countrymen are being recruited to fight the Iraq war as proxies for the Americans," he said.
"That makes them mercenaries — reminiscent of the French Foreign Legion that fought the French wars in Africa as proxies of the latter," he said.
Pimentel warned that the "new batch" of Filipino "mercenaries" in Iraq may follow in the footsteps of Abu Sayyaf leaders in Mindanao.
The Abu Sayyaf mostly worked as mercenaries and proxies for the US in the war against Soviet troops in Afghanistan some years back, he added.
Pimentel said after Soviet troops were driven out of Afghanistan, the Abu Sayyaf mercenaries "turned their war proclivities against our own people" when they came home.
"History might repeat itself and worsen the law and order situation in the country unless the government provides a decisive solution to the problem of our young men being recruited as mercenaries and proxies for the US in the war in Iraq," he said.
Pimentel said the reported deployment of about 3,000 Filipinos tasked to secure American diplomatic officials and assist US combat troops in Iraq could not have been possible without the knowledge and clearance of the Philippine government.
"The recruits were hired by prominent American job firms and trained in Subic before being sent to Iraq," he added.
Pimentel asked why travel visas for the recruits were not marked "not valid for Iraq," despite the supposedly strict government ban on the deployment of workers to that strife-torn country.
"The problem that the government faces in this regard is that it feigns utter powerlessness to stop it because it tends to look at the recruitment as a business proposition," he said.
Pimentel said the recruited Filipinos mercenaries are reportedly paid a minimum of $2,000 a month, which, "in the government’s capitalist orientation," would be justified because the mercenaries prefer to be recruited for war rather than continue with their lives of joblessness.
"The additional problem is that these mercenaries might make the country and our embassies and trade missions vulnerable to counter-attack by those being attacked by the mercenaries in Iraq," he said.
Pimentel said to avoid these security problems, the administration should provide job opportunities for our Filipinos in the Philippines.
"With no job opportunities here, the recruits will go to Iraq, the risks will be there for them and the country," he said.