Ryan Ponce Pacpaco

HOUSE Majority Leader Rolando “Nonoy” Andaya Jr. yesterday challenged embattled Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno to stop using Malacanang to defend himself over alleged budget controversies and questionable allocations in the national budget.

“While we respect the observations made by former Chief Justice Reynato Puno, they are sadly misplaced,” said Veloso, explaining the House version of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to push Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass) is more practical than the costly Constitutional Convention (Con-Con).

A HOUSE leader warned yesterday that the government could be accused of swindling legitimate contractors if it would not prioritize settling P100 billion in government payables to them amid the alleged P75-billion insertions made by embattled Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno in the proposed 2019 P3.757-trillion national budget.

HOUSE Majority Floor Leader Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando “Nonoy” Andaya Jr. yesterday accused Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno of betraying President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte for allegedly manipulating the budget process by supposedly inserting P75 billion in the proposed 2019 P3.757-trillion national budget.

FORMER President and now Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday said she felt being unfairly singled out in the issue of budget allocation because her district is not among the highest of those that were earmarked allocations by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

TOP officials of President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte will hold a security briefing with congressmen this Tuesday morning in preparation for tomorrow’s joint session of Congress on the Chief Executive’s request to grant martial law extension and suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in Mindanao for another year.

Andaya denounces multi-billion peso flood control projects in Bicol already awarded even before 2019 budget okay.

A MINDANAO congressman bared yesterday that the national government is spending P9 billion to deploy more than 13,000 health professionals to underserved communities in 2019.

THE House of Representatives is scheduled this Monday to approve on third and final reading a measure proposing amendments to the 1987 Constitution including lifting the term limits of legislators and local officials.

WITH the overwhelming support of the House leadership, an opposition House leader admitted yesterday that the approval of martial law extension and suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in Mindanao for another year during a joint session of Congress this Wednesday is just a matter of formality.

THE House of Representatives has summoned Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno to attend its Question Hour this Tuesday afternoon to answer the congressmen’s queries related to the deliberations on the proposed 2019 P3.757-trillion national budget.

LEYTE Rep. Yedda Marie Kittilstvedt-Romualdez yesterday congratulated the Remedios T. Romualdez Medical Foundation (RTRMF)-College of Nursing in Tacloban City, the school that nursed and housed Yolanda victims, for producing three of the top 10 passers in the 2018 nursing licensure exam and posting a 100 percent passing rate.

A HOUSE leader yesterday pointed out that Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ranked 100th among the 292 members of the House of Representatives, which belies the insinuation that Mrs.Arroyo got a huge congressional allocation under the 2019 P3.757-trillion national budget.

Compostela Valley Rep. Maria Carmen Zamora, the main plenary sponsor of the national budget and a senior vice chairperson of the panel, said the allocated funds under House Bill (HB) No. 8169 or the national budget for various districts, including that of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s second district of Pampanga, originated from the figures submitted by the Department of Budget (DBM) during the time of former Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez.

A Mindanao congressman has sought a congressional inquiry into the alleged illegal raid conducted by police authorities at the property of Mayor Jasmin and Vice Mayor Glicerio Monton Jr. of Jabonga, Agusan del Norte.