(Eagle News) — The Palace is backing Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno skipping the House appropriations committee hearing on Friday, Feb. 9.
In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that while “officials from the executive branch would give their full cooperation and if necessary, attend probes and inquiries in aid of its duty of legislation,” Congress in general, for its part, should “accord the same courtesy to an executive official whom it invites as a resource person by observing its own rules such as by affording the invitee, as well as his or her staff, proper notice and sufficient time to prepare for a committee hearing on a particular issue.”
Panelo was echoing Diokno’s reason for not attending the hearing, which is part of the inquiry panel chair Rolando Andaya Jr. launched into alleged anomalies in the proposed national budget.
Diokno had cited Section 8 (3) of the Rules of Procedure Governing Inquiries in Aid of Legislation, which said that a “subpoena shall be served to a witness at least three days before a scheduled hearing in order to give the witness every opportunity to prepare for the hearing and to employ counsel, should the witness desire.”
Diokno said the DBM received the House panel subpoena on Thursday, Feb. 7, at 11 a.m.
The hearing on Friday, Feb. 8, was scheduled at 10 a.m.
According to Panelo, Diokno’s reason was “well-founded in fact and in law.”
“This way, invited officials can adequately provide Congress the information which the latter desires to be knowledgeable of, thereby rendering the situation beneficial not just to both branches of the Government but more importantly to the people whom we ultimately serve as public servants,” Panelo said.
“We thus respect the Budget Secretary’s decision and we are hopeful that knowledgeable men and women of Congress would similarly find the circumstances surrounding the said official’s explanation justifiable as they perform their best in passing this year’s budget,” he added.
Andaya launched the probe and accused Diokno of being behind the P75-billion “insertion” in the proposal after Senator Panfilo Lacson said a district in Camarines Sur–the congressman’s—and a district in Pampanga–Speaker Gloria Arroyo’s—had “cornered” insertions in the House-proposed national budget.