Solon questions Duterte’s remarks vs House: We supported your admin

MANILA, Philippines — House Majority Leader and Zamboanga City 2nd District Rep. Manuel Jose Dalipe has questioned former president Rodrigo Duterte’s attacks against the legislative chamber, reminding him that it was the same establishment that helped him address the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement on Wednesday, Dalipe said a lot of the members of the 19th Congress were also part of the 18th Congress — which took office when Duterte was still president.

The same 18th Congress was responsible for the laws crafted at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — from March 2020 to the end of Duterte’s term last June 2022.

“Many of us now in the 19th Congress, we also served in the 18th Congress when President Duterte was still in office.  And he knows what we did. We exerted our full support for him and his legislative agenda, and even during the time of COVID, Congress supported him.  That’s why we’re perplexed today that he looks at us differently,” Dalipe said in Filipino.

READ: House reps find Duterte’s tirades offensive, a serious attack – secretary general

But now, Dalipe said that it seems Duterte forgot that the House never left him behind with these attacks against the institution.

“Even before the time of COVID, whatever the President says, we heeded his call.  We did not leave him hanging. We ensured that the Duterte administration had a sufficient budget during the time of COVID-19 so that he has funding to distribute social aid for health needs for the pandemic. We supported him,” he noted.

“That’s why it’s quite sad why he issued such statements now,” he added.

Duterte, during an interview with Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) called the House the most rotten government institution, claiming that Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez was distributing pork barrels to lawmakers in the 19th Congress.

READ: House answers Rodrigo Duterte’s rant after OVP lost secret funds

The House leadership has denied this, noting that the pork barrel has been disallowed by the Supreme Court.  The legislative body also maintained that the House does not have confidential funds (CF) — rather, the P1.6 billion are intended for extraordinary expenses by lawmakers, which are fully auditable.

During the 18th Congress, Romualdez was the Majority leader of the House.  He also figured in a three-way race for the Speakership — between other Duterte allies Senator Alan Peter Cayetano and Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Velasco — but he eventually remained as Majority leader.

READ: Duterte ends speakership squabble

During the pandemic, the House under Cayetano’s leadership passed the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act and Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, which allowed the government to realign items in the budget for the COVID-19 response.

Dalipe believes Duterte’s rants against the House and Romualdez were borne from the chamber’s decision to realign the CF of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) — two agencies headed by Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte.

OVP requested a P500 million CF for 2024, while DepEd asked for P150 million.  The CF of both agencies, including three others, were completely removed by the House in the General Appropriations Bill.

Other offices’ CFs were reduced as well to make way for funding for agencies securing the West Philippine Sea.

Dalipe stressed this, adding that other departments also suffered CF cuts.

“But it’s not only OVP that had changes to its CF, the Department of Agriculture also had changes, its CF was also removed.  The Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Information and Communications Technology also went through the same.,” he explained.

“The question there is, is that bad?  It isn’t bad, right?” he added.

‘Numbers don’t lie’

Meanwhile, Tingog party-list Rep. Jude Acidre maintained that the numbers do not lie — that the House performed better under Romualdez.

“The House of Representatives of the 19th Congress has earned the highest approval and confidence rating in recent years – and Speaker Martin Romualdez receiving the highest performance satisfaction rating ever for the leader of the lower chamber,” Acidre said in a separate statement.

“In a little more than a year, the House under Speaker Romualdez has passed and approved on third reading almost all of the priority legislative measures indicated by the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac),” he added.

Furthermore, Acidre also debunked Duterte’s corruption claims, echoing previous statements by House leaders that the chamber is undergoing proper auditing.

“In like manner, the Commission on Audit has already certified that there has been no incident of fund misuse in the House of Representatives,” he said.

“Instead, the House has posted a budget surplus of P4.69 billion in its 2022 allocations, an increase of P2.05 billion, or around 78%, compared with the excess funds in 2021 of P2.64 billion based on official COA reports,” he added.  “Speaker Martin Romualdez’ strong leadership has made it so for the House of Representatives, making the lower chamber a true House of the People.”

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