House not liable in 2025 budget mess, Co claims

A RESIGNED lawmaker at the center of a brewing political scandal that has hit the Marcos administration said the House of Representatives had no role in the 2025 national budget mess, stressing the chamber “faithfully adhered” to the executive’s spending plan.

In a letter addressed to President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., former Party-list Rep. Elizaldy S. Co said it was the Senate that derailed this year’s spending plan.

“None of our Senate counterparts adhered to Your Excellency’s campaign promise of food and health legacy and other basic concerns,” Mr. Co, who headed the House Appropriations committee, said in the letter, shared on his Facebook page on Wednesday.

This year’s P6.326‑trillion national budget has been hit with allegations of fund diversions, blank line items by the executive, and concerns over outsized public works allocations, prompting multiple lawsuits filed at the Supreme Court against the spending plan.

Mr. Co alleged it was then-Senate President (SP) Francis G. Escudero who called for P145 billion in reallocations to the Department Public Works and Highways (DPWH), threatening to delay the 2025 budget’s approval at the bicameral conference committee level until March 2025.

“I repeatedly warned SP Chiz of the Senate’s very large DPWH allocations because it would exceed education. But he doesn’t want to give way,” he said.

The Office of Mr. Escudero did not immediately reply to a Viber message seeking comment. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio