(Eagle News) — The Palace on Thursday, Dec. 13, said Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno still enjoys the full trust and confidence of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo issued the statement after the House of Representatives adopted House Resolution No. 2365 urging President Duterte to reconsider his appointment of Diokno.
The lower house adopted the resolution authored by Minority Leader Danilo Suarez, after House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya accused Diokno of being behind alleged insertions amounting in the billions in the proposed P3.757 trillion national budget, and linked him to the contractor who allegedly cornered 30 government projects even if it was supposedly only a single proprietorship.
Andaya went on the offensive after Senator Ping Lacson revealed Pampanga, Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s province, and Camarines, Andaya’s province, topped the list of congressional insertions in the House of Representatives’ proposed national budget.
Andaya later said it was actually the former leaders of the House who cornered infrastructure funds in the Lower House’s proposed national budget.
Diokno, for his part, said President Duterte knew of the insertions, and denied any links to the contractor in question.
“While we respect House Resolution No. 2365 which urges the Office of the President to reconsider the appointment of Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Benjamin Diokno as an expression of sentiment from a separate branch of the government, we similarly wish to express that the President continues to trust the Budget Secretary and the confidence reposed on him remains unimpaired,” Panelo said.
According to Panelo, Duterte considers Diokno as “one of the best and brightest in his official family,” noting also the budget secretary’s “unblemished” record in government service.
“Sec. Diokno’s reputation as an upright, competent and honest public servant stays solid up to this day,” he said.
According to Panelo, should Congress “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.”
“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 courtesy,” he added.
