MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte will not heed the request of the House of Representatives to dismiss Department of Budget and Management secretary Benjamin Diokno, Malacañang said Thursday.
Despite his supposed involvement in alleged irregularities in the P3.757-trillion 2019 national budget, Diokno still enjoys the full trust and confidence of Duterte, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said.
In House Resolution 2365 passed late Wednesday, representatives urged the President to fire his Budget chief over the alleged “executive pork insertions” in next year’s budget.
“While we respect the resolution which urges the Office of the President to reconsider the appointment of (Diokno) as an expression of sentiment from a separate branch of the government, we similarly wish to express that the President continues to trust the Budget secretary and the confidence reposed on him remains unimpaired,” Panelo said.
Diokno has an unblemished track record in government service and considered by the President “as one of the best and brightest in his official family,” the Palace official said.
Panelo added: “Secretary Diokno’s reputation as an upright, competent and honest public servant stays solid up to this day.
“Should it feel that there was irregularity in the allocation of the budget, it can always correct it apart from having the option of recommending the filing of charges against those they deem are responsible for the transgressions should the same amount to a crime.
“In the same manner that the President doesn’t tell Congress who it will choose as its officers and how to go about it, we wish that its members return the same courtesy.”
Earlier Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. claimed that majority of the alleged “executive pork” worth P75 billion have been bid out, with at least 30 infrastructure projects already cornered by a lone contractor.
Andaya alleged the Diokno was behind the insertion of the “executive pork barrel.”/PN
