Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin clarfiied in front of House of Representatives members on Monday Sept. 8 that he meant "nothing malicious" when he accused the solons of corruption on the issue of the national budget. (Video courtesy of House of Representatives)
00:00As I said, there's the tradition in the House that we give institutional and parliamentary courtesy to the office of the President.
00:08However, ito na yun, may however Congress naman eh.
00:15There are pressing issues which we need to be clarified na napaka-importante na maliwanagan ng taong bayan.
00:23Dahil two days ago we received, may nakita tayong statement in the media at saka from the office of the Executive Secretary.
00:36Nandito na siya ngayon, kaya gusto nating tanungin siya.
00:39And I quote,
01:09All our investigation into the anomalies will be futile if the sources of corruption remain unchecked.
01:22Hence, we urge the House of Representatives to heed the demand of the people for full accountability.
01:30Clean your house first.
01:33End of quote.
01:34Mr. Chairman, gusto lang namin na maliwanagan kung anong ibig sabihin po nito from our Executive Secretary.
01:43Maraming salamat, Minority Leader Libanon.
01:48May we ask the Executive Secretary to briefly respond to shed light on the issues raised by our Minority Leader.
01:58Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
02:00Thank you, Mr. Minority Leader, for raising this up.
02:05It's the elephant in the room.
02:06But we came here in good faith.
02:11We just would like to emphasize that any part of that statement is our statement.
02:18We will not share from that or avoid the impact.
02:23But we would like to emphasize today that that statement was more to stress our institutional separation from the House of Representatives,
02:36some of whose members, and I hope it is not the majority, have made some statements that we in the Cabinet considered to be against institutional separation of powers
02:52or to raise the confidence in our institution.
02:59So we came up with that statement, it was a consensus of the Cabinet, and it was more to emphasize our constitutional position and separation
03:11and to elicit cooperation and support from the House of Representatives more than any other.
03:21We do not intend that to rile up the tension between our departments, as we have emphasized in the opening statement.
03:31We come here seeking your support for our institutional budget.
03:38So I think that is all that I can say at this time.
03:42There is nothing intended that is malicious or to malign the House of Representatives.
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