Malacañang appears to be on a war footing with Congress, after Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin issued a strong statement slamming efforts in Congress to shift the blame for the manipulation of the national budget from the legislators to Executive agencies.

As the trail of the manipulated 2024 and 2025 budgets was leading to the bicameral conference committee — the joint House and Senate body — the attention is being diverted to the contractors and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials.

Bersamin said the legislators were giving undue spins to the narrative. According to him, several lawmakers were trying to pin the blame for the corruption on the Executive branch.

In a teaser for the fourth episode of his podcast on Saturday night, an upset and teary-eyed President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said he is “very upset” at how illegal acts are committed at the expense of others.

The Chief Executive railed against the injustice that “good and hardworking Filipinos” are experiencing while some amass ill-gotten wealth.

“I see people having a hard time. And they don’t deserve it. Mabuti mga kung masamang tao ‘yan. Dapat parusahan. Hindi naman eh (It would be understandable if they were bad people. They should be punished. But they’re not),” he said in a post on his official Facebook page.

“All they did was work and love their families. Why would you punish them? So, you can get rich? That makes no sense to me,” he added.

Spin doctors in Congress

“The Cabinet strongly objects to the recent spins by certain members of the House of Representatives who are attempting to shift the blame for their own corruption and failures onto the executive branch,” Bersamin said.

He did not name any of the lawmakers. Recently, Deputy Speaker and Antipolo Rep. Ronaldo Puno suggested sending back the National Expenditure Program (NEP) to the Department of Budget and Management due to alleged irregular items in the proposal.

Bersamin stressed “attacks” on the executive branch will not be tolerated.

“The members of the Cabinet will not tolerate any attack on the integrity and reputation of the executive branch, and any effort to hold the budget process hostage through political theatrics,” he said.

Bersamin urged Congress to heed the call of the people.

“All our investigations into the anomalies will be futile if the sources of corruption remain unchecked. Hence, we urge the House to heed the demand of the people for full accountability: Clean your house first,” he said.

Earlier, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said it was open to collaborating with Congress to preserve the integrity of the annual budget.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman is currently working with Public Works and Highways Secretary Vince Dizon in reviewing the department’s budget proposal for 2026.

Pangandaman said the DBM will submit an errata to Congress to fix the NEP, as the proposed budget can’t be returned to the department.

DPWH engineers make call

Puno earlier said Congress has been given the NEP for the DPWH for specific districts. At the start of the budget process, the district engineer creates a program that should be aligned with the national infrastructure program.

“What we get is just the local part. We’re not engineers, so the district engineer makes the program, saying, ‘This is the project, this is the cost, this is where it’ll be done,’” Puno explained.

Members of Congress are allowed to add P150 million worth of projects each to the 2026 budget.

Puno, however, indicated that suspicious entries were found in the draft received from the DBM.