VICE President Sara Duterte tagged House Speaker Martin Romualdez as an “embarrassment for the Philippines on the global stage.”
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Duterte made the statement in a press conference on Friday, October 18,2024.
“On record, on paper na tumanggap ng suhol. Nakakahiya,” Duterte added.
She refused to divulge further information about the matter but promised to discuss more about it in the coming weeks.
Earlier, Duterte said Romualdez, a cousin of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and House Committee on Appropriations chairperson Ako Bicol Party-list Representative Zaldy Co were manipulating the national government’s budget which was one of her reasons for resigning as the secretary of the Department of Education as well as the vice chairperson of the Anti-insurgency Task Group.
Before this, Romualdez apparently took a swipe at Duterte as he called out government officials who misuse public funds.
The proposed P2,026,357,000 budget allocation for the OVP under the National Expenditures Program (NEP) 2025 was lowered to P733,198,000.
This came as Duterte refused to answer questions during budget deliberations on how her office spent its funds particularly its P125 confidential and intelligence fund (CIF) for 2022 which was reportedly used in a span of just 11 days.
Duterte said the Lower House is politicizing the budget. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)