BUDGET Secretary Benjamin Diokno still enjoys President Rodrigo Duterte's full trust and confidence despite call for the Cabinet official's ouster following an alleged P75-billion insertion in the proposed 2019 national budget, Malacañang said Thursday, December 13.
The statement came after the House of Representatives adopted House Resolution 2365, urging Duterte to fire Diokno following supposed "executive pork insertions."
For Duterte, Diokno's public service remained "unblemished" even after the congressmen made a call to remove the Budget chief from office, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.
"While we respect House Resolution 2365..., we similarly wish to express that the President continues to trust the Budget secretary and the confidence reposed on him remains unimpaired," the Palace official stressed.
"Secretary Diokno's record in the government service, to the mind of th Chief Executive and of the rest of his cabinet, is unblemished," he added.
House Resolution 2365, authored by House Minority Leader Danilo Suarez, was adopted Wednesday, December 12, a day after the House of Representatives conducted a question hour with Diokno to seek clarification on the proposed P3.757-trillion national budget for 2019.
The resolution noted that during the interpellation, the issue on the augmentation in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) without the knowledge of Public Works Secretary Mark Villar "remains unsolved."
The proposed DPWH budget for next year has risen to P555 billion after P75 billion was augmented to the administration-approved P480 billion for additional infrastructure projects.
The House resolution claimed that "such insertion, if proven, is illegal and ultra vires (beyond one's authority) for it bypassed the authority of the President, through its line agencies, to submit its proposed budgets for 2019."
But Panelo said Duterte still considers Diokno, one of the country's economic managers, as "one of the best and brightest in his official family."
"[Secretary] Diokno's reputation as an upright, competent and honest public servant stays solid up to this day," he said.
Panelo, nevertheless, said the House lawmakers could elevate their concerns by filing charges against Diokno, should they feel that the Budget chief committed "irregularity" in the allocation of the proposed 2019 budget.
"Congress, to which the power of the purse rightfully belongs, has the constitutional duty to scrutinize the budget and even has the power to revise or amend proposals found in it," he said.
"Should it feel that there was irregularity in the allocation of the budget, it can always correct it apart from having the option of recommending the filing of charges against those they deem are responsible for the transgressions should the same amount to a crime," Panelo added.
But for now, Panelo said the executive hoped that Congress would respect Duterte's decision to choose for his own the members of his Cabinet, the same manner the Chief Executive lets the lawmakers exercise their independence.
"In the same manner that the President doesn’t tell Congress who it will choose as its officers and how to go about it, we wish that its members return the same courtes," Panelo said. (SunStar Philippines)