House won't tolerate hypocrisy — Romualdez

Speaker Martin Romualdez has warned critics that the House of Representatives will have "zero-tolerance" toward officials who cry for accountability but are blind to their "misuse of public funds."

"We cannot ignore the reality that there are those who seek to undermine our work — critics who speak of accountability while conveniently ignoring their own misuse of public funds," Romualdez said in his speech during the opening of the floor debates on Monday on the proposed P6.352 trillion national budget for 2025.

The House chief did not name names but asserted that "this chamber will not tolerate hypocrisy, nor will it stand idle in the face of such blatant disregard for public trust."

"You cannot point a finger when you are the one to blame. Congress will follow due process [on the budget deliberations] and no one will escape accountability," he added in Filipino.

While Romualdez did not specifically allude to Vice President Sara Duterte, his remarks came at the heels of the latter's accusation that he and Ako Bicol Partylist Rep. Elizaldy Co, chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriations Committee, have been "controlling" the national budget. 

Romualdez and Co "meddling" with the 2023 allocation of the Department of Education (DepEd) during her tenure as its secretary was also one of the reasons why she resigned from the post. 

Duterte headed the DepEd for nearly two years until her abrupt resignation on 19 June. She was replaced by seasoned lawmaker Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara. 

In a taped interview last week, Duterte alleged that several House members wanted to get a portion of the DepEd's P5-billion budget for classroom construction in 2023, but she thumbed it down.

However, when the General Appropriations Act was signed, she said that the allocation was boosted to P15 billion and that Romualdez and Co had sole control of the excess P10 billion. 

Co, however, vehemently denied Duterte's allegation, claiming that the VP was only "diverting" the issue from her need to justify how she spent both funds of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and DepEd, both hounded by irregularities. 

After the counter-accusation, the Co-led panel announced that it would recommend a P1.3 billion slash from the OVP's initial P2.03 budget, leaving it only with P733.198—similar to Vice President Leni Robredo's allocation in 2022.

Co previously attributed the budget cut to Duterte's "poor track record" in handling public resources. Duterte, however, countered that "defunding" her office was part of the "political attack" against her.

Nevertheless, Duterte averred that the OVP could function with zero budget. 

The OVP's slash funding will be realigned to the Department of Health's Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients and the Department of Social Welfare and Development's Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation, which would both receive P646.58 million. 

The realignment of funds follows Duterte's defiance to justify how she spent her P125 million in confidential funds in 2022—of which P73.287 was disallowed by the Commission on Audit—and skipped the second round of the budget deliberation on Tuesday.