(L-R) President Rodrigo Duterte and Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno
MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang on Thursday (December 12) called on both houses of Congress to respect the authority of President Rodrigo Duterte over each member of the Executive branch amid calls for Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno to resign.
On Wednesday (December 11), the Lower House adopted House Resolution No. 2365 “which urges the Office of the President to reconsider the appointment of Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Benjamin Diokno” after the congressmen grilled him in a joint session over alleged insertions in the proposed 2019 National Budget.
President Spokesperson Salvador Panelo in a statement said, while the Executive branch respects the Legislative branch’s decision to act against Diokno, Panelo explained that: “Secretary Diokno’s record in the government service, to the mind of the Chief Executive and of the rest of his Cabinet, is unblemished. As one of the Administration’s economic managers, PRRD considers him as one of the best and brightest in his official family. Sec. Diokno’s reputation as an upright, competent and honest public servant stays solid up to this day.”
Panelo noted that it is the Congress who has the authority under the Constitution “to scrutinize the budget and even has the power to revise or amend proposals found in it.”
The Presidential Spokesperson said the Congress should at least show respect to the Chief Executive’s prerogative of choosing his own officials the same way that the President respects the same privilege the Lower House congressmen enjoy.
“Should it feel that there was irregularity in the allocation of the budget, it can always correct it apart from having the option of recommending the filing of charges against those they deem are responsible for the transgressions should the same amount to a crime. In the same manner that the President doesn’t tell Congress who it will choose as its officers and how to go about it, we wish that its members return the same courtesy,” Panelo concluded. – Marje Pelayo (with reports from Rey Pelayo)
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