Sherwin Gatchalian said discussions on the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte did not come up during Senate deliberations on the 2026 national budget.

“Well, in my case, we didn’t talk about the impeachment. We didn’t talk about the political side of things,” Gatchalian told reporters during a press briefing.

“What we talked about was the budgetary requirements as well as their impact on the people,” he added.

Gatchalian was responding to remarks by fellow senator Imee Marcos, a long-time ally of Duterte, who claimed that alleged “pork” insertions in the 2026 budget could be used to fund the Vice President’s impeachment.

“Every person has their theory. I cannot comment on her theory,” Gatchalian said.

Marcos earlier raised concerns over cuts to several major projects, including the Metro Manila Subway and the North-South Commuter Railway, whose combined budget was reduced to P49.2 billion from P121.5 billion.

She also criticized reductions in the budget for foreign-assisted projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways, which fell to P17 billion from P70 billion.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. signed the P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026 but vetoed seven of the 10 unprogrammed appropriations (UAs), amounting to P92.5 billion out of the total P243.4 billion.

Following the veto, UAs under the 2026 General Appropriations Act were reduced to P150.9 billion, the lowest level since 2019.

The rejected items included budgetary support for government-owned and -controlled corporations (P6.895 billion), prior years’ local government unit shares (P14.623 million), payment of personnel services requirements (P43.245 billion), the CARS Program (P4.32 billion), the RACE Program (P250 million), insurance of government assets and interests (P2 billion), and the government counterpart for certain foreign-assisted projects (P35.77 billion).