House panel ready to cite budget chief for contempt
Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr. on Tuesday threatened to bring the House of Representatives down if Congress would be forced to pass the proposed 2019 national budget unchecked, as hostilities between lawmakers and budget officials escalated.
The House appropriations committee chair ratcheted up the pressure on the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) by ordering Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno to explain his refusal to appear before the panel or face contempt.
“They’re rushing us to pass the budget. [If we are] forced into it, dared into it, I will bring this House down pure and simple … if they pass this without thinking,” Andaya said.
Andaya heads the House contingent to the conference conference committee that would reconcile the conflicting House and Senate versions of the P3.8-trillion spending bill.
The resigned House majority leader said the bicameral discussions on the budget were becoming more difficult as lawmakers raced against time to approve a common version before the congressional break next week.
“The following days in bicam will be the hardest and most intense ever,” Andaya said.
At the House panel hearing, Andaya and his colleagues trained their sights on Diokno, who had again ignored their invitation to shed light on Andaya’s allegations against him.
Show-cause order
Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso moved for the issuance of a show-cause order to Diokno to explain why he should not be cited for contempt.
“Whatever offenses may be invoked … but at least he should explain to us why he does not appear in the hearing,” he said.
The motion was carried as nobody objected.
“We’ll issue a show-cause order for him to explain his continued absence to a coequal branch,” Andaya said.
Question Hour
He said Diokno’s excuse for not attending was his “bad experience with us during Question Hour.”
“I don’t think bad experience is a legal defense for his defense,” he added.
During Question Hour in December last year, Diokno was accused of giving lots of infrastructure projects to Sorsogon province where his daughter’s parents-in-law are elective officials.
Andaya also accused Diokno of inserting P75 billion to the proposed 2019 budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways without informing DPWH Secretary Mark Villar.
Malacañang will leave it to Diokno to decide whether to heed the show-cause order from the House.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo noted that Diokno was free to seek the President’s intervention in the matter by raising that in a Cabinet meeting. —With a report from Julie M. Aurelio
