Malacañang on Saturday rejected Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano's claim that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. refused to support his proposal to grant P10,000 in cash assistance to every Filipino family.

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro dismissed Cayetano's assertion, saying Marcos could not have rejected a proposal that never reached his office.

"Why can't Sen. Alan Cayetano stop himself from stirring up intrigue and peddling baseless stories? Instead of acknowledging his own negligence in his duties, he points fingers at others just to save himself from embarrassment. He passes the work he fails to accomplish onto other people," Castro said.

"We will present evidence to counter Sen. Alan's lies," she added.

Earlier on Saturday, Cayetano criticized the administration in a Facebook livestream following the government's announcement of expanded financial assistance of up to P12,000 for more than seven million poor and low-income households affected by rising fuel prices triggered by the Middle East conflict.

The senator argued that if the government could now finance billions of pesos in targeted cash aid, it could have implemented his long-standing proposal for universal cash assistance.

"So in 2021, going into 2022, I said that many people still haven't recovered, so our budget can provide. But after Pres. Marcos won, he didn't want to," Cayetano said.

Cayetano first pushed the proposal at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, seeking to grant P10,000 to every Filipino family to help cushion the economic fallout of prolonged lockdowns and rising prices.

The measure, however, failed to advance in Congress after lawmakers and the government's economic managers raised concerns over its funding requirements, saying a universal cash transfer program would cost hundreds of billions of pesos and put additional strain on the country's finances as it recovered from the pandemic.

Instead, the Marcos administration has pursued targeted subsidies for vulnerable sectors, including transport workers, farmers and low-income households.