Zubiri, Romualdez agree to truce amid heated exchanges between Senate, House members

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri and House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez have agreed to a ceasefire amid the exchange of criticisms between some Senate and House members over alleged “pork” barrel allocation in the proposed 2020 national budget.

“Actually nagkita kami ni Majority Leader Martin Romualdez sa birthday party ni Senator Bong Revilla (kagabi) and we already agreed to have a ceasefire,” Zubiri told reporters Thursday.

He said he was also able to talk with Anakalusugan party-list Representative Mike Defensor who raised the possibility of cutting the budget of the Senate for next year because it “does not have specific constituencies or districts.”

“As a matter of fact, nakausap ko na si Cong. Defensor last night and I told him ‘wag na niyang dagdagan ‘yung sinabi n’ya, pumayag naman siya na ceasefire na muna at wala na munang comments,” he said.

The exchange started when Capiz Representative Fredenil Castro, in a privilege speech, demanded an apology from Senator Panfilo Lacson for claiming that each House deputy speaker will receive P1.5 billion while each congressmen will be given P700 million.

Sought for comment, Lacson said it was the House members who abused the money of taxpayers who should apologize to the Filipino people.

In a Twitter post, the senator continued criticizing Castro.

No pork last year? Cong Castro should take some memory enhancement pills. He forgets that he and his co-conspirators in the House had illegally inserted P95B in the 2019 national budget which the President vetoed as recommended by the Senate.

— PING LACSON (@iampinglacson) September 25, 2019

Peacemaker

Zubiri said some of his colleagues, tagging him as the peacemaker in the Senate, asked him to talk with his House counterpart to avoid the issue from escalating.

He said the criticisms do not represent Congress as he expressed hope that cooler heads will prevail.

“It does not represent the House of Representatives nor does it represent the Philippine Senate. So ang akin diyan is to be more circumspect, we have to work together to pass the budget so I’m hoping that cooler heads will prevail and no further comment should be made on this particular issue,” he said.

He said he has yet to speak with Lacson on the ceasefire.

“I haven’t spoken to Senator Ping on the matter but you know each and every member of the House and each and every member of the Senate is entitled to their opinion. Wala namang problema ‘yun, ang atin lang we don’t want to escalate this to a word war where it will hamper our business of the day which is basically passing the budget,” said Zubiri. 

In a separate interview, Lacson said he will continue what he is doing. “This is not a word war. Taon taon namang ginagawa ko ito, hindi naman ngayong taon lang ito. Hindi lang dahil ang nagsalita ay si Cong. Castro, o si Cong. Defensor, o si Cong. Abante, maski sino ang mapansin na inabuso ang budget.” 

He added that Castro tried to have audience with him either in August or this month but he decided not to talk to him.

“He was trying to have an audience with me, mukhang meron siyang ilalapit na project.  Hindi ko siya nakausap kasi hindi ko siya kinausap. In 2018, he kept on hitting me not just on the issue of pork but on federalism. Hindi naman ako makipagplastikan sa kanya, hindi ako ganun,” he said. — RSJ, GMA News