SENATE President Vicente Sotto III said he has accepted the apology of House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano over the latter’s statement passing the blame to the Senate for the delay in the approval of the 2021 budget.
Cayetano cleared the air in another Facebook live video Thursday afternoon, October 8, 2020.
He said he called Sotto Thursday noon to clarify the statement attributed to him that the Senate is to blame for any delay in the approval of the budget bill.
Sotto, irked by Cayetano’s statement, said it was the House that delayed the budget approval for a month.
"Very good ang relationship ng House and Senate. Very good ang relationship natin with the Senate President. Nagkaroon lang po ng kaunting misunderstanding yesterday," Cayetano said, referring to his Facebook live video on Wednesday, October 7.
He said he also asked Sotto to extend his apologies to the rest of the senators.
"Ngayong tanghali, I called Sen Sotto. I asked him if he can extend to the whole Senate that I apologize na ang dating ay kini-criticize ko o pinapass ko sa Senate na may delay. Hindi yun ang intensyon," Cayetano said.
Sotto confirmed that Cayetano called him to apologize this afternoon.
“Accepted [the apology] and I said we will do our best to work on the time we have as the Senate always does,” Sotto said.
“He called. He promised to submit by November 5 their proposed copies of the different budget books before the GAB [General Appropriations Bill] which they will approve on third reading. I said that will help us especially our finance committee chairman,” Sotto added.
In a statement, Senator Risa Hontiveros said the Senate will not allow itself to be dragged into the issues in the House.
“The Senate is working overtime to pass the national budget. This is one of the most important budget deliberations of our generation and we will not allow it to be delayed by petty politics,” Hontiveros said. (SunStar Philippines)