DOT chief apologizes over PRA head’s demands during Senate budget hearing

Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco has apologized to senators, on behalf of the Philippine Retirement Authority chief, for her demands to prioritize the agency's budget during the Senate plenary debates on early Tuesday.

This after several senators took offense, when PRA General Manager Cynthia Lagdameo Carrion texted them, including Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, to hasten the deliberation of the 2024 proposed budget of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, so the upper chamber can immediately proceed to hearing the Department of Tourism's, in which her agency is attached.

During the hearing, Senator Jinggoy Estrada called out the attention of Carrion, who was also present in the plenary, over "lecturing" senators on how to do their job.

"We are doing our job and no one has the right to tell us to stop talking here. It is our duty and our job to perform our work here in the Senate and you don't have the right to tell us what to do here," Estrada said.

Carrion reportedly messaged Estrada, Zubiri, Senator Pia Cayetano, and Senate Deputy Minority Leader Senator Risa Hontiveros while the DENR budget was under interpellation.

Zubiri admitted that Carrion is his friend but called the latter's actions "inappropriate."

"It was very surprising that this person, Ma'am Cynthia, who is a friend of mine, we're family friends, and if it was just me, I would just let go of it. But when I heard that you were texting other members of the Senate, particularly more insulting messages to Senator Risa Hontiveros, to stop asking about the budget already of DENR because you want the DOT to be next in line, that is not proper. That is inappropriate," Zubiri said.

At the senate plenary, Frasco apologized to the senators noting that Carrion also demanded her to put the DOT hearing first in the schedule of budget deliberations.

In response to the PRA chief, Frasco noted that the "Senate is an independent body and we must fully respect their schedule, their discretion, their time. We wait like everybody else because we are in their house."

"Imagine my shock and complete and utter disappointment when I learned that she, in defiance of what I had been very clear to her about, proceeded to send these inappropriate text messages," the DOT chief added.

Frasco has already ordered Carrion to issue an immediate and personal apology to the senators.

"As a tacit manifestation of our commitment to set things right, I have already ordered the chief of staff to immediately conduct an investigation into her actions and subsequent findings of the same to mete out the appropriate penalty that is appropriate to the impropriety of her actions," she said.