MANILA, Philippines – Hiniling ng House Committee on Appropriations na ipaliwanag ni Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin ang kanyang naunang pahayag na nag-aakusa sa ilang miyembro ng House of Representatives na inililipat umano ang sisi “for their own corruption and failures” sa Executive Branch, at hinihimok na “clean your House first”.
Nagtanong si House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan sa budget briefing ng Office of the President sa harap ng House panel.
“There’s the tradition in the House that we give institutional and parliamentary courtesy to the Office of the President. However, there are pressing issues, which we need to be clarified,” aniya, pagkatapos ay binasa ang pahayag ni Bersamin.
Nilinaw ni Bersamin na ang kanyang pahayag ay hindi naglalayong siraan ang kamara, ngunit igiit ang separation of powers.
“Thank you, Mr. Minority Leader for raising this one, it’s the elephant in the room. But we came here in good faith. Any part of that statement is our statement. We will not shirk from that or avoid the impact,” saad ni Bersamin.
“But we would like to emphasize today that that statement was more to stress our institutional separation from the House of Representatives, some of whose members, and I hope it is not the majority, have made some statements that we, in the Cabinet, considered to be against institutional separation of powers or to raise the confidence in our institution. So we came up with that statement.” dagdag niya.
“It was more to emphasize our constitutional position and separation and to elicit cooperation and support from the House of Representatives, more than any other,” ani pa rin niya.
“We do not intend that to rile up the tension between our departments. We come here seeking your support for our institutional budget… There is nothing intended that is malicious or to malign the House of Representatives,” dagdag pa niya. RNT/MND
