Congressmen on Wednesday appealed to Senator Imee Marcos to support her concerns against the P5.768-trillion 2024 national budget with documents.
“If you really want to know the answer to that, bring out the minutes of the bicam, malalaman natin (we will know),” Lanao del Norte Rep. Mohamad Khalid Dimaporo said at a news conference.
He was referring to the bicameral conference committee that finalized the budget. Marcos was a member of the committee and signed its report.
“I really would like to appeal to both houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate as much as possible we keep things professional that you know the Filipino people are deserving more of the usual ‘marites’ (rumor-mongering),” he said.
“Now if you want to point fingers on where certain realignments came from, get the minutes of the bicam,” he said.
Manila Rep. Ernesto Dionisio Jr., for his part, lamented that there have been statements and video recordings in social media that he found to be “very unprofessional.”
“For me personally, when I watch the news, when I see social media, on YouTube sometimes, it’s sad that there are statements that are made that are very unprofessional. In my humble opinion, we have to keep things professional,” Dionisio said.
Dionisio said lawmakers should be respectful of each other.
“We should really speak and give our opinions cordially, let’s be respectful to each other and let’s work together. Again, the President and our Speaker really want to get things done so not until such time that both houses unite and talk without fighting, I think it’s hard to work like that,” he added.
For his part, La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega issues about the 2024 budget should have been raised and resolved when the spending measures were pending in Congress, and not now.
“Why is it only now coming out when it all went through the rigorous budget process of the House and the Senate. So, I guess, if there are administrative concerns or budgetary concerns, that should be threshed out in our hearings,” Ortega said.
“I mean, it should have gone with the process, but it’s easy to say something like this, so if it’s in the proper forum, then I guess we should talk about it to fix the different problems and concerns,” the lawmaker added.