HOUSE Majority Leader Rolando Andaya on Monday, September 17, dismissed talks that Davao Representative Karlo Nograles will be ousted as chairman of the powerful appropriations panel.
In a statement, Andaya said the plenary deliberations on the proposed 2019 national budget will push through as scheduled with Nograles sponsoring the General Appropriations Act as chairman of the House committee on appropriations.
“There is no reorganization. The plenary debates will begin at the scheduled time. Business as usual,” he said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez said Nograles will be ousted as the appropriations panel chair before the House of Representatives begins its plenary hearing on the P3.757-trillion budget on Monday.
Suarez later in the day recanted his statement and said it will be status quo for the appropriations committee chairmanship.
In a statement, Nograles said "the minority leader cannot speak for the majority coalition."
He, however, said that anyone who wants him removed as the head of the appropriations committee can have his position, but they cannot be allowed to make the President break his promise to the Filipinos.
"If anybody wants to remove me as chair of the committee on appropriations, then they can have the position, but they cannot be allowed to make the President break his promise to our people, and they cannot be allowed to deprive millions of Filipinos in so many provinces nationwide of the programs and projects that our kababayans and my fellow probinsyanos need, by tinkering with the budget," he said.
"This budget is for the needs of our people," added Nograles.
Nograles was instrumental in former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's rise to the position of House Speaker. He was the one who led the informal hearing that elected Arroyo on the same day that President Rodrigo Duterte delivered his State of the Nation Address last July 23.
Unlike the loyal allies of former House speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, like former Justice committee chair Reynaldo Umali and good governance committee chair Johnny Pimentel to name a few, who were stripped of their respective committee chairmanships, Nograles who was among the 184 lawmakers who voted for Arroyo who retained his chairmanship.
Meanwhile, Andaya said the House of Representatives will wrap up the deliberations on the proposed budget before the October break. (SunStar Philippines)