Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman on Friday rejected former Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co’s recent statements implicating her in the P100 billion insertions in the 2025 national budget.
This came after Co, in a video statement released earlier in the day, finally broke his silence over the budget mess and the flood control controversy.
Co said everything started when Pangandaman called him to inform that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. allegedly wanted P100 billion worth of insertions in this year’s budget.
‘All appropriations ordered by the President are already in the National Expenditure Program. That is why it is called the President’s Budget. So we reject any insinuations about it,’ Pangandaman said at a briefing in Malacañang.
She also said, ‘The bicam is purely under the power of the legislature. We respect and strictly follow the budget process, and all our actions are aboveboard.’
She explained that the executive department crafts the national expenditure program (NEP) for six months. This will be followed by the submission of the NEP to the Congress and deliberations.
‘So ginawa rin ‘yan ng executive para ma-ekplika kung paano ginawa ang president’s budget at ang national expenditure program. Pagkatapos po nun magdideliberate na po sila. Wala na pong role ang Office of the President, ang Executive sa bicam ‘yun lang po maraming salamat po,’ said Pangandaman.
In his video statement, Co said Pangandaman had asked him to confirm the president’s order regarding the insertions with the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Undersecretary Adrian Bersamin.
After confirmation, Co said he told then-House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez about this instruction.
‘I immediately called Usec. Adrian Bersamin and I asked if, during their meeting, there was really an instruction from the president to insert P100 billion. He said that was true,’ he continued.
‘Right after our conversation, I called up former Speaker Martin Romualdez, and I reported to him the instruction of the president to insert P100 billion worth of projects, and he (Romualdez) told me, ‘What the president wants, he gets,’ Co narrated.