Ex-House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. should have quit his post much earlier, instead of hanging on to his position and making an ass of himself, using his position to wreak his vengeance on Budget Secretary Ben Diokno, whom he seems to have made it his ambition to destroy his credibility and integrity, qualities Andaya does not appear to have.

“This was one way to keep himself on the front pages of the news, which is the reason he kept on with his useless probe of the

It could also be the fact that Andaya may have failed to retain the big billion pork logged in for his district in Camarines Sur and the policy of the budget cash basis that Diokno has been pushing.

Still defiant despite losing his important post, Andaya tried to make it appear that he has stepped down due to a term-sharing agreement made between him and now Deputy Speaker Fredenil Castro of Capiz who Andaya had nominated as his replacement.

Still, despite his being out as majority leader, Andaya vows that all is not over between him and Diokno, as the congressman from Camarines Sur made it clear that as he has assumed the post as chairman of the Appropriations committee and as such, he will continue his watch over the passage of the General Appropriations Bill.

He also vowed to continue the budget probe under his committee and presumably will be continuing to link Diokno, albeit still unsuccessfully, to the Sorsogon flood projects through in-laws who are not Diokno’s in-laws.

But he also vows that, as chairman of the Appropriations committee, he intends to use his last few days in Congress ensuring that the “2019 General Appropriations Act (GAA) is transparent, fair to all and responsive to the needs of the people.”

“If transparency and accountability in the GAA will be my only legacy as House leader, so be it,” Andaya said.

However, it is also fairly clear that Andaya tries to portray himself as the great white knight fighting the dragon fires of corruption in the Diokno Budget office, even when he himself faces close to a hundred counts of graft and malversation along with charges of fabricated and falsified documents.

Yet Andaya has the nerve to claim, in hitting Diokno, that, “We were confronted with two choices: rubber-stamping the passage of a greatly flawed budget on time or using more time to craft a better one purged of its inborn defects.

“If we choose the path of surrender and subservience, then such legislative haste would have surely led to budgetary waste. We cannot pass a budget marinated in flood control funds, or drowning in DBM-inserted infrastructure projects which the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) remains clueless about,” Andaya said.

Well, it is either DPWH chief Mark Villar sleeps during the Cabinet meetings or he lies about not knowing about the P75 billion insertion, which is incidentally legal and not a crime, since this was discussed during the Cabinet meeting where Villar was present.

Yet this white-knight show is what Andaya continues to portray himself in media, since he is running for governor of Camarines Sur in the midterm elections in May.

This was one way to keep himself on the front pages of the news, which is the reason he kept on with his useless probe of the so-called budget insertion of P75 billion by Diokno, then linking the budget to him via the in-laws of his daughter, who has nothing to do with the projects, nor is there any proof that she or her husband had received millions in commissions or kickbacks.

There is also no proof of any wrongdoing on the part of Diokno.

Still, the Andaya style to get media mileage for his governorship run in Camarines Sur continues.

Shortly after Andaya announced he was stepping down as majority leader, the Palace spokesman said Andaya should stop waging a “media propaganda war” against Diokno.

“If he has problems with the current Budget secretary, we hope that he would look for an appropriate venue by just filing a case against him in the court of law,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

Andaya never did by way of haling Diokno to court on his claim of corruption or graft or even the P75 billion insertion. What Andaya did was to come up with a mandamus for the Supreme Court to order Andaya to release the fourth tranche of payments, a portion of which was released by the Budget department. The other portions have not been released owing to the Palace continuing to operate under last year’s budget.

Andaya may just find himself not just out of his role as House Majority leader but also out of government should he lose the gubernatorial polls. Many hope he does. He is no white knight. Far from it — what with his corruption and malversation and falsification of documents raining on his head.