Senator Erwin Tulfo labeled as "baseless" Senator Imee Marcos' claims that the 2026 budget might be used to once again push the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
During the Kapihan sa Senado on Thursday, 8 January, Tulfo maintained that there is no evidence that this year's budget could be used to begin another impeachment case against Duterte.
"Well, that's [Senator Imee's] opinion. But for me, I don't see it like that. So, I don't think so. You might want to ask Senator Imee again where she got that idea or that opinion," Tulfo said in Filipino.
"As a Vice Chair [of Senate Committee on Finance], I didn't see any fund that could be operated against the Vice President for her impeachment," he said.
Earlier, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said the impeachment of Duterte was not among the topics discussed during the deliberations on the 2026 national budget.
Marcos earlier lamented that some important projects were cut, including the budget for Metro Manila Subway and North-South Commuter Railway, which fell from P121.5 billion to P49.2 billion.
She also lamented the cuts in the budget for foreign-assisted projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways, from P70 billion to P17 billion.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., signed the P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026 but vetoed seven out of 10 unprogrammed appropriations (UAs) or P92.5 billion of UAs totaling P243.4 billion.
With the veto, UAs in the 2026 General Appropriations Act were trimmed down to P150.9 billion, the lowest since 2019.
The rejected line items were the following: 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), CARS Program (P4.32 billion), RACE Program (P250 million), Insurance of Government Assets and Interests (P2 billion), and Government Counterpart for Certain Foreign-Assisted Projects (P35.77 billion).