Lawmakers fume at each other over House’s authority to probe OVP budget use

Tempers flared at the House of Representatives on Wednesday over the authority of the House good government and public accountability panel to question Vice President Sara Duterte on how her office uses its yearly budget.

Sagip party-list lawmaker Rodante Marcoleta stirred the pot by arguing that the root of Wednesday’s inquiry, which is the privilege speech of Manila Representative Rolando Valeriano titled “Asserting the Power of the Purse of Congress,” does not cover the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) budget use because nobody is questioning Congress’ power of the purse to begin with.

Valeriano’s speech called out the Vice President over alleged inefficient use of the OVP’s budget based on the findings of state auditors and her refusal to answer lawmakers’ questions on the budget use.

“Is there anybody who is questioning the legislative function and oversight function of Congress? Is there? Because if there is none, then we are not supposed to overextend the discussion or any manifestation because nobody is questioning that. And I think nobody could question that,” Marcoleta said.

“Even the privileged speech of the Honorable Valeriano...the proper title is not asserting the power of the purse. We should not assert it because that power is inherent in us. That is our birthright. The OVP, to my mind, did not undermine the power of the purse when she personally came in the first hearing and presented herself, including the [OVP’s proposed] budget by way of a PowerPoint presentation,” Marcoleta added.

Marcoleta, who last week demanded if the House appropriations panel had the right to forgo the tradition of giving the OVP budget a courtesy approval without question, also defended the Vice President, saying that Duterte’s repeated answer during Day 1 of the House appropriations panel's budget deliberations on the OVP’s P2-billion proposed budget that she would forgo her opportunity to defend the budget by way of question and answer format and leave it to Congress to decide was a “very respectful answer.”

Marcoleta, however, did not mention that during the same deliberation, the Vice President wanted House appropriations panel senior vice chairperson Stella Quimbo to be replaced as the presiding official and questioned the presence of House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of ACT Teachers party-list because she has been convicted of a child endangerment case by a lower court.

At this point, Manila lawmaker Benny Abante sought parliamentary inquiry and asked if Marcoleta is contradicting the action of their fellow House members.

“I would like to ask the Honorable Marcoleta, is he rebuking this committee? Are you rebuking this committee?” Abante said angrily, pointing his finger at Marcoleta repeatedly.

Marcoleta responded with, “Why am I supposed to rebuke the committee?”

“You have been saying things for a while. You have been rebuking this committee. We are not blaming the Vice President on this,” Abante said, again pointing fingers at Marcoleta.

The hearing was then suspended by House good government and public accountability chairperson and Manila lawmaker Joel Chua.

With the mics turned off, Abang Lingkod party-list lawmaker Stephen Paduano then approached Marcoleta. The two were seen gesturing at each other during their exchange, their hands coming close to each other's person until their colleagues came over.

When the hearing resumed, Chua said that Rule 4, Section 1 of the House rules provides that the filing or pendency of a case before any court, tribunal, quasi-judicial or administrative body “shall not stop any inquiry conducted to carry out a legislative purpose.”

“What we are doing right now is we are doing our mandate. This hearing is in aid of legislation. The fact that the issue is still with COA and still pending appeal, it does not stop this committee from conducting an inquiry in aid of legislation to conduct or to carry out our legislative purpose,” Chua said. — BM, GMA Integrated News