(Eagle News) — The Palace on Thursday, March 14, said those accusing Speaker Gloria Arroyo of falsification should just file a case against her.
“Kung sinasabi mong unconstitutional, di ba it behooves them to file the appropriate charges against whomsoever has committed any violation of any law,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said.
Senator Panfilo Lacson had made the accusations against Arroyo for signing the proposed national budget tweaked by the House of Representatives even after its ratification by both the House and the Senate.
Lacson said the House “manipulated” the proposed national budget, but House appropriations chair Rolando Andaya Jr. said they were only itemizing the budget to make it easier to scrutinize.
President Rodrigo Duterte stepped in to try and resolve the impasse, but neither chamber budged.
Following the meeting and in a bid to break the deadlock, the Senate backed the proposal to convene a special session for a supplemental budget that included what the House called the itemizations.
The government has so far been operating on a reenacted budget because the 2019 proposed national budget has not been passed as a law yet.
