# House Committee on Appropriations: OP - September 1, 2026 — Source-Linked Digest

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er7cgNmaAm8

AI-assisted working draft. AI can make errors. Always verify consequential interpretations and wording against the cited transcript and official video.

## At a glance

- **FY 2027 Office of the President NEP:** Executive Secretary Ralph Recto said the Office needed less funding after ASEAN Summit hosting ended. The committee extended parliamentary courtesy and ended interpellation; members put their questions on record for the plenary.

- **Courtesy over interpellation:** Minority Leader Marcelino C. Libanan moved, and Senior Deputy Speaker Ferdinand L. Hernandez joined for the majority, to extend institutional and interbranch courtesy and terminate discussion of the budget. Rep. Antonio L. Tinio objected. On a show of hands the motion carried 37 to 5. Rep. Albert S. Garcia, the Senior Vice Chairperson presiding, committed that every question raised would be answered on or before the plenary budget defense, and that civil society organizations' submitted questions would be forwarded to the Office as well.

- **The questions left for plenary:** With interpellation ended, members manifested what they would have asked. Rep. Antonio L. Tinio, Rep. Renee Louise M. Co, Rep. Elijah Rumbaoa San Fernando, Rep. Sarah Jane I. Elago and Rep. Iris Marie Demesa Montes opposed the courtesy — San Fernando and Elago arguing it belongs to taxpayers and workers rather than the Presidency, Co that the power of the purse belongs to the legislature, Montes that no office should be exempt from scrutiny — and put questions on record: Tinio asked why cabinet officials he said had been named in flood-control allegations were removed without explanation or investigation, and why roughly half the Office's budget (₱4.55 billion by his count) is confidential and intelligence funds; Co pressed on the NTF-ELCAC barangay program's growth from ₱1.95 billion to ₱9.74 billion; Elago on VAT and fuel-excise burdens; Co on mining and environmental policy.

- **Support and a fiscal warning:** Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez manifested full support, citing the President's foreign-policy stance on the West Philippine Sea, his raising of the flood-control issue in the SONA, the anti-corruption campaign, and farm and fisher assistance. Rep. Edgar R. Erice also backed the budget and the confidential funds but asked the Cabinet to answer in plenary how the 2027 budget would reverse four quarters of GDP deceleration, why fiscal space for development had shrunk from 25% to 16% with more than a third of that pork, and why ₱1.6 trillion in borrowing exceeded the ₱1.1 trillion set aside for development. [00:44:35 · asr-000395](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000395) · [00:44:47 · asr-000401](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000401) · [00:44:54 · asr-000402](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000402) · [00:45:44 · asr-000425](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000425) · [00:45:46 · asr-000426](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000426) · [00:45:47 · asr-000427](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000427) · [00:45:55 · asr-000431](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000431)

- **Outcome:** No question received a government answer at the hearing; the Office of the President took notes and all matters were deferred to plenary. The committee thanked the Office and suspended proceedings to resume at 3 p.m. for the Commission on Elections budget.

Reading note: Figures and claims are reported as stated by the speakers at the hearing and were not answered or verified there; allegations are the speakers' characterizations. Follow timestamps to the transcript and official video.

## Agency presentation

### Appearing in deference to the power of the purse

FY 2027 Office of the President NEP allocation: PHP 10.156 billion. Executive Secretary Ralph Recto said he appeared not merely because the law requires the Executive to defend its budget before Congress, which holds the constitutional power of the purse, but in compliance with the President's standing directive to honor Congress, respect its mandate, and treat it as a full partner in advancing the welfare of the people and protecting the national interest. He described the two branches as co-equal institutions united by a common duty to the Filipino people rather than competing centers of power.

[00:11:15 · asr-000071](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000071) · [00:13:53 · asr-000105](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000105)

### A ₱10.15-billion request, 64% below the previous year

The NEP proposal was 0.14% of the proposed PHP 7.2 trillion national budget and 64% below the previous year. He attributed the reduction to lower operational requirements among the Office's delivery units and to the completion of activities for the Philippines' hosting of the ASEAN Summit, for which no further funding would be needed. The Office was, in his words, asking for less while remaining fully prepared to do more, and he called the amount sufficient for the Presidency amid geopolitical tensions, disruptions in the Middle East, typhoons, El Niño and other calamities.

[00:14:52 · asr-000123](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000123) · [00:14:57 · asr-000124](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000124) · [00:15:00 · asr-000125](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000125) · [00:15:13 · asr-000126](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000126)

### What the budget sustains: 49 delivery units and Malacañang operations

The budget would sustain the Office of the President's 49 delivery units; support cabinet meetings, policy consultations, presidential engagements and official travel; and fund the daily operations of Malacañang as the government's principal center of decision-making and executive coordination. Recto said it would also bring timely assistance to vulnerable families and let government respond swiftly in emergencies. Activity alone, he said, is not the measure of performance: the test for every peso is whether it solves a problem, improves a life, or strengthens the nation, and said the Office ensures each policy, meeting, engagement and mission yields a public dividend in jobs, investment, national security, public services or opportunity.

[00:15:58 · asr-000134](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000134) · [00:16:49 · asr-000142](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000142)

### Audit record and fiscal discipline

Recto said public funds are not the government's money but the people's, earned through hard labor and entrusted to government in the expectation that it will uplift their lives — which is why, he said, fiscal discipline and accountability remain central to the Office's operations. Recto reported that the Commission on Audit issued the Office of the President an unmodified opinion for Fiscal Year 2025 — the highest opinion an agency can receive and the Office's third consecutive unmodified opinion since 2022 — meaning its financial statements were presented fairly in all material respects under public-sector accounting standards. He called it a badge of good housekeeping and proof that the people's money is accounted for and their trust respected. He said the proposal was crafted strictly within DBM parameters and processes, that the Office sought no special treatment, and that it was submitted with full respect for Congress's authority and readiness to answer questions.

[00:17:41 · asr-000150](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000150) · [00:18:27 · asr-000157](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000157)

## Budget proposal and funding motions

### Office of the President 2027 budget proposal

The hearing did not separately state the Office of the President's original FY 2027 budget submission to DBM. Presiding Senior Vice Chairperson Rep. Albert S. Garcia gave a more precise NEP allocation than Recto's rounded presentation figure; they refer to the same proposal. Recto said it was prepared within DBM parameters and would support the Office's 49 delivery units.

[00:11:12 · asr-000070](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000070) · [00:11:15 · asr-000071](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000071) · [00:14:52 · asr-000123](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000123) · [00:14:57 · asr-000124](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000124) · [00:15:00 · asr-000125](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000125) · [00:18:27 · asr-000157](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000157)

### No funding increase or restoration motion recorded

The only formal budget-related motion extended institutional and interbranch courtesy and terminated further discussion of the Office of the President proposal; it carried 37 to 5. Later members put questions and expressions of support or opposition on record for plenary, but no one moved or requested a specific funding increase or restoration during this hearing. The vote did not approve a changed appropriation.

[00:19:11 · asr-000165](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000165) · [00:20:16 · asr-000180](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000180) · [00:27:16 · asr-000221](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000221) · [00:29:01 · asr-000222](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000222)

## Motion to extend parliamentary courtesy

### Libanan's motion, joined by Hernandez, and an objection from the floor

Minority Leader Marcelino C. Libanan moved, on the minority's behalf, that the committee extend institutional and interbranch courtesy to the Office of the President for its fiscal year 2027 budget and terminate further deliberations — subject, he said, to manifestations by some members of the minority, and noting that the Office was represented by 'our dear colleague' Ralph Recto, whose brilliance and hard work the House knew well. Senior Deputy Speaker Ferdinand L. Hernandez, for the majority, joined the minority and moved that the committee extend the courtesy and terminate further discussion and interpellation on the proposed budget. A second was voiced from the floor and an objection was registered at once; the chair noted the motion was duly seconded and recognized Rep. Antonio L. Tinio to explain his objection.

[00:19:11 · asr-000165](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000165) · [00:20:12 · asr-000179-split-2](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000179-split-2)

### The vote: 37 to 5, courtesy extended, briefing terminated

Before ruling, Rep. Albert S. Garcia, the Senior Vice Chairperson presiding, said that whatever the outcome, every question, clarification and suggestion would be answered either at the hearing or in plenary, where a wider audience could witness it. On a show of hands the motion carried, 37 members in favor and five against. The committee thereby extended institutional and interbranch courtesy to the Office of the President, terminated further discussion and interpellation on its proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, and thanked Executive Secretary Recto and the Office's officials for their attendance. During the count Rep. Renee Co rose on a point of parliamentary inquiry; the chair said he would acknowledge it once the vote was complete, then announced the result and the committee's thanks. Her inquiry was taken up after that closing business.

[00:23:19 · asr-000211](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000211) · [00:27:16 · asr-000221](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000221)

## Rep. Antonio L. Tinio

### Objecting to parliamentary courtesy: transparency must apply equally to the President

Rep. Antonio L. Tinio objected to the motion and explained why. 'Ito na naman po tayo,' he said — once again a motion for parliamentary courtesy for the Office of the President, meaning Congress would not question the budget the Office had just presented. Repeating what he said he had argued the previous year, he said this Congress should scrap parliamentary courtesy altogether, especially on the budget, because the public wants transparency and Congress must apply that principle evenly: it had been quick to demand transparency from the Office of the Vice President and should demand the same from the Office of the President.

[00:20:52 · asr-000188](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000188)

### What the public wants answered: flood control and confidential funds

Tinio said the case for questioning was stronger now because people wanted to hear the Office of the President explain the involvement of the President himself and his cabinet officials in the flood-control issue, and why roughly half of the Office's budget was confidential and intelligence funds. He said the people wanted answers directly from the Office and that the hearing was the only chance to hear them first-hand. 'Kaya again, tayo po ay tumututol' — on that basis, he said, they opposed the motion to extend courtesy.

[00:21:51 · asr-000198](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000198)

### A challenge to the Executive Secretary: courtesy can be waived

Closing, Tinio issued what he called a direct challenge to the Executive Secretary: should the motion succeed, the courtesy was merely that — a courtesy — and the Office of the President could waive it at any time and choose to answer questions. He repeated the objection.

[00:22:43 · asr-000204](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000204)

### For plenary: why were cabinet officials removed amid flood-control allegations, without explanation or investigation?

Recognized a second time, Rep. Antonio Tinio said that since members were manifesting the questions they would have asked and still expected answers in plenary, he would put some of his on record. First, flood control: Executive Secretary Recto was present, he said, because his predecessor had been removed, along with other cabinet officials named — by two people the transcript renders as 'Zaldico' and DPWH's 'Yusek Bernardo' — as allegedly involved in placing insertions in the 2025 budget and facilitating kickbacks for the President himself. His question: why were they removed, why was there no explanation, and why, to this day, was there no investigation of these officials allegedly involved in flood control — including the President?

[00:53:40 · asr-000662](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000662)

### For plenary: why are ₱4.55 billion — nearly half the OP budget — confidential and intelligence funds?

Second, confidential and intelligence funds: Tinio asked why nearly half of the Office of the President's budget, ₱4.55 billion, was confidential and intelligence funds. If the Office of the Vice President's ₱612.5 million in confidential funds over just a few years was now being scrutinized, he asked, why was the Office of the President's far larger allocation not scrutinized, and why did the Office not explain why it was so large? He repeated his call for an even-handed application of transparency and said members wanted answers to these questions.

[00:54:30 · asr-000687](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000687) · [00:54:39 · asr-000692](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000692) · [00:54:41 · asr-000693](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000693) · [00:54:44 · asr-000694](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000694) · [00:54:49 · asr-000697](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000697) · [00:54:51 · asr-000698](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000698) · [00:54:53 · asr-000699](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000699) · [00:54:55 · asr-000700](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000700)

## Rep. Renee Louise M. Co

### Parliamentary inquiry: the vote is not closed until it is explained

Rep. Renee Louise M. Co rose to clarify that under Section 120 the vote would not terminate until members had explained their votes, and said she would explain hers now. Speaking for the Makabayan Block, she filed a formal manifestation on the Office of the President's proposed 2027 budget: the public treasury is not Malacañang's personal property, the House should not continue the 'broken tradition' of extended parliamentary courtesy to the Office, and the power of the purse belongs to the legislature as the people's representative and must never be surrendered to the executive. In past deliberations, she said, courtesy had reduced the President's budget to a formality of quick approval; amid the many crises facing the country every peso of the 2027 expenditure program, drawn from the people's sweat, blood and taxes, should be explained and shown.

[00:29:53 · asr-000230-split-2](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000230-split-2)

### NTF-ELCAC's Support to Barangay Development Program: ₱1.95 billion to ₱9.74 billion, chaired by the President

As an example of a contradiction between a stated transparency priority and practice, Co pointed to the absence of public information on the implementation or audit of the billions allocated to the Support to Barangay Development Program of the NTF-ELCAC, which the President chairs. She traced the program from ₱1.95 billion in the 2025 GAA to ₱8 billion in 2026 and ₱9.74 billion proposed for 2027, said the funds were also being used to suppress people, and called the spending process unclear — a process, she noted, that was under scrutiny even at the Senate, though in the Office of the Vice President's case. She asked why funds for schools and health centers should pass through a counter-insurgency task force when DepEd and DOH exist, and said the House should not let farm-to-market roads and school buildings under the BDP become a new form of pork barrel and local political patronage; the system, she said, had proven a source of red-tagging, suppression of civilians and dubious projects while marginalized sectors kept suffering.

[00:31:14 · asr-000252](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000252) · [00:31:45 · asr-000259](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000259) · [00:31:50 · asr-000260](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000260)

### Flood control accountability and the administration's environmental policy

Co said there was still no broad accountability for flood-control corruption amid allegations involving not only the President but cabinet secretaries, and amid flooding across the country. She questioned the administration's priority policies for protecting the environment given continued denuding of mountains and executive orders enabling wider mining, and asked how worse flooding and environmental destruction — which in the end bring hardship to the people — could be prevented. All of this, she said, needed to be discussed, so there was no room for parliamentary courtesy at a time when the public had so many questions about the whole administration's spending and, above all, the Office of the President.

[00:32:51 · asr-000271](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000271)

## Rep. Elijah Rumbaoa San Fernando

### Courtesy is owed to taxpayers, not to the Office of the President

Rep. Elijah Rumbaoa San Fernando began from Executive Secretary Recto's own words: it was Recto himself, he said, who stated that President Marcos's marching order was to appear because the Office honors and respects Congress's mandate — and that mandate, San Fernando said, particularly of this chamber, is to scrutinize every peso and centavo placed in any government office, even the highest. The President himself had repeatedly called for transparency and accountability at all levels, yet the motion seemed to defeat what the President said. Courtesy, he argued, should go instead to taxpayers, workers and ordinary Filipinos, now, with people submerged in floods and the country facing a mass of problems, especially for workers. On that basis workers objected to the parliamentary courtesy being extended.

[00:34:27 · asr-000290](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000290)

### What workers want to know: the pesos and the policy direction

San Fernando said workers and ordinary Filipinos wanted to know not only every peso to be placed in the Office of the President but also its policy statements and policy direction on matters touching their daily lives. He repeated that workers and ordinary Filipinos objected and did not agree with the committee's decision to grant the Office parliamentary courtesy.

[00:36:14 · asr-000305](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000305)

## Rep. Sarah Jane I. Elago

### Prices, wages, floods and the questions women want answered

Rep. Sarah Jane I. Elago said women joined the call for full transparency and accountability and wanted answers to many questions — especially now, with rice, food, electricity and fuel prices at their highest and wages too low to cover families' daily needs, after successive floods and calamities, and with a Super El Niño threatening. Local agriculture and manufacturing had collapsed, she said, and the national budget still gave too little priority to local rice production and to support for vegetable and fruit growers.

[00:37:18 · asr-000317](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000317)

### VAT and fuel excise: review the taxes the poorest carry

With high prices the top complaint year after year, Elago said the government still imposed punishing taxes on the poor — the value-added tax and the excise tax on fuel — and asked whether it was time to review them. Congress had granted emergency powers to suspend, reduce or scrap the petroleum excise tax, yet only LPG and kerosene had been suspended; she asked about diesel, gasoline and other products that farmers rely on for machinery and fishers for going to sea. The questions, she said, were not only women's but all citizens'; she asked why there was no decisive action to bring down rice, food and fuel prices, why the VAT could not be lifted at least temporarily, and urged serious discussion of taxing large corporations and super-billionaires instead.

[00:38:44 · asr-000331](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000331)

### Agriculture, MSMEs, and land before foreign negotiations

Elago called for enriching agriculture, manufacturing and industry, and for support to the many micro, small and medium enterprises that depend on government to build export capacity and create jobs. Farmers and indigenous peoples, she said, wanted their interest in their land and in local agriculture put ahead of preparations for negotiations related to 'paksilika' — their call being land for farmers and indigenous peoples, not for it. She said she was dismayed that these weighty questions would not be taken up that day; parliamentary courtesy, she said, should be for the Filipino people, who hope for shared national development for the next generation.

[00:40:47 · asr-000350](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000350)

## Rep. Edgar R. Erice

### Support for the budget, with questions the Cabinet must answer in plenary

Rep. Edgar R. Erice, saying he was not a member of the committee, expressed support for the President's ₱10-billion budget: in his view the President had followed austerity in cutting his budget by 64%, and he thought the confidential funds were, at this point in time, very necessary for the President. He then asked the attention of the Executive Secretary and the Cabinet for big questions that had to be answered during plenary.

[00:42:37 · asr-000371](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000371) · [00:42:42 · asr-000372](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000372) · [00:42:46 · asr-000373](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000373)

### Four quarters of GDP deceleration, and flood-control anomalies as a third cause

Erice's first question was about growth: the country was in a severe quarterly deceleration, with GDP falling for four straight quarters. External factors and inflation were causes, he said, but a third reason was holding back recovery — the flood-control and budget anomaly — as shown by neighboring countries recovering, even Vietnam, now at 8% GDP growth. The big question, he said, was how the 2027 budget would help lift the economy.

[00:43:28 · asr-000379](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000379) · [00:44:12 · asr-000388](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000388)

### Shrinking fiscal space: from 25% to 16%, more than a third of it pork

Erice traced the fiscal space for developmental projects and capital outlay from 25% in 2023 to 21% in 2024, 19% in 2025 and 2026, and, by his own study, only 16% now. Of that 16%, he said, 37% was still pork, soft and hard, including ₱58 billion of presidential pork. As an example he cited ₱8 billion distributed to barangays — scholarships at about ₱100,000 per barangay — with no measure and no absorptive capacity in government to monitor it, which he said was borne out by continuing corruption in barangay budgets that the Commission on Audit tolerated; the money was wasted if that was where it went.

[00:44:17 · asr-000390](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000390) · [00:44:35 · asr-000395](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000395) · [00:44:38 · asr-000398](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000398) · [00:44:39 · asr-000399](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000399) · [00:44:39 · asr-000400](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000400) · [00:44:47 · asr-000401](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000401) · [00:44:54 · asr-000402](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000402) · [00:45:04 · asr-000405](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000405) · [00:45:05 · asr-000406](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000406) · [00:45:11 · asr-000409](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000409) · [00:45:15 · asr-000411](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000411)

### Borrowing ₱1.6 trillion to fund operations, not development

The country was borrowing ₱1.6 trillion, Erice said, while only ₱1.1 trillion was set aside for developmental projects — meaning the borrowing was going to government operations, personnel services and MOOE rather than development. The economy was growing 4% while debt grew almost 10%. These, he said, were the important things to explain to the people so they understood the country's direction: what path would be taken, and what would be done so the 2027 and 2028 budgets improve Filipinos' lives.

[00:45:43 · asr-000424](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000424) · [00:45:44 · asr-000425](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000425) · [00:45:46 · asr-000426](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000426) · [00:45:47 · asr-000427](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000427) · [00:45:55 · asr-000431](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000431) · [00:46:09 · asr-000438](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000438) · [00:46:13 · asr-000440](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000440)

## Rep. Iris Marie Demesa Montes

### A no vote for scrutiny, not against the Office or its occupant

Rep. Iris Marie Demesa Montes explained that her negative vote on the motion was not directed against the Office of the President or the person occupying it, but was a vote for transparency, accountability and Congress's constitutional duty to scrutinize every peso of public funds. She commended the Office for submitting a lower budget, perhaps in consideration of the dire situation, but said the national budget is the most important policy document to come before the chamber and no office, regardless of its stature, should be exempt from meaningful scrutiny. That, she said, was why she voted no.

[00:47:21 · asr-000474](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000474)

## Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez

### Full support from Cagayan de Oro: foreign policy and the West Philippine Sea

Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez, for Cagayan de Oro City, manifested 100% support for the entire budget of the Office of the President, saying the President deserved support and admiration. His first reason was foreign policy: the President had made sure not an inch of national territory — the first substantive provision of the Constitution — was lost, had pivoted to like-minded countries such as the United States, Japan, the European Union, Australia and New Zealand as a matter of international law, and was protecting the West Philippine Sea and the 200-mile economic zone under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The President, he said, stood on the right way to counter China, and Congress had to support his quest that no foreign power take the economic zone.

[00:48:31 · asr-000509](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000509)

### Flood control: the President raised it himself, and his district's projects passed inspection

Second, Rodriguez credited the President with bringing the flood-control issues to light in his State of the Nation Address, so that those responsible would face justice through the Ombudsman. He was happy to note there were no ghost or substandard flood-control projects in Cagayan de Oro's second district: everything was completed to proper standards and had passed COA, NBI, DPWH and NEDA examination immediately after the President's pronouncements.

[00:50:06 · asr-000557](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000557)

### Anti-corruption, farm and fisher assistance, and access to line agencies

Rodriguez also cited the anti-corruption campaign — the President's appointment as Ombudsman of someone Rodriguez called 'a very illustrious member of ours', who had begun filing cases with more to follow — and assistance to farmers and fisherfolk, recalling the President distributing ₱10,000 to farmers and fisherfolk of Region 10 in Cagayan de Oro. The President had also ensured members of Congress had access to DSWD, DOLE, TESDA and the Department of Health. All of this, he said, would compel Congress to make sure of the President's budget — his sentence trailing off unfinished. He closed with best wishes to the President and to Executive Secretary Recto, who he said was doing his best to make government functionaries perform.

[00:51:16 · asr-000592](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000592)

## Committee outcome

### All questions to be answered on or before plenary; CSO queries forwarded; proceedings suspended

Closing, Rep. Albert S. Garcia, the committee's Senior Vice Chairperson and presiding officer, said Tinio was the last member wishing to manifest, that he had watched the Office of the President's staff taking notes intently and Executive Secretary Recto's attention fixed on the members' questions, and that all of them would be answered on or before the plenary so the public could hear the answers. Continuing a practice he said the leadership and the committee chair had instituted with the previous year's budget, civil society organizations had submitted questions, clarifications and suggestions to the Committee on Appropriations through Chair Mikaela Suansing; these too would be given to the Office of the President for answers before plenary. The committee thanked Recto and the Office's officials, and the proceedings were suspended to resume at 3 p.m. for the Commission on Elections budget hearing.

[00:55:43 · asr-000723](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000723) · [00:56:33 · asr-000746](https://tordecilla.github.io/budget-hearings-2026/records/21/#asr-000746)