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Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian on Thursday refuted claims that the 2027 national budget is being dangled before senator-judges in order to secure votes for the conviction of Vice President Sara Duterte in her impeachment trial.
In an ambush interview, Gatchalian said there is “no basis” to the allegations that the 2027 budget is being used to pressure senator-judges or is being offered to them as some sort of reward in exchange for their vote to convict the Vice President.
“Walang gano’n. Walang gano’n na dina-dangle sa senator or senator-judges,” the Senate President said.
(There’s nothing like that. Nothing is being dangled before the senators or the senator-judges.)
“First, kaka-transmit lang sa amin ‘yung budget last Monday. So, nag-umpisa pa lang pinag-aaralan ‘yung budget, although meron na kaming mga advanced studies… So ngayon pa lang namin hinihimay. Since ngayon pa lang hinihimay, so wala pa kaming ginagalaw sa budget,” he explained.
(First, the budget was only transmitted to us last Monday. So, we have just begun studying it, although we already had some preliminary studies. But we are only going through it now in detail. Since we are still in the process of scrutinizing it, we haven’t made any changes to the budget yet.)
On Wednesday, Vice President Sara Duterte said the people would be taken for granted, if the impeachment and the national budget are being used “as instruments of political survival of the corrupt.”
“If impeachment and the national budget are being used as instruments of political survival of the corrupt, then it is the people, not the defense counsel, who are being taken for granted,” Duterte said as she defended lead defense counsel, Atty. Sheila Sison, from accusation of being a “bully” in the impeachment trial.
Senate impeachment court’s credibility
Gatchalian said the credibility of the Senate impeachment court may be compromised because of such claims, but he assured that the judgment of the senator-judges would be “impartial and fair.”
“In fact, hindi in any way konektado ‘yung budget sa magiging judgment ng impeachment. Ang direction ng impeachment is to render impartial and fair judgment,” he said.
(In fact, the budget is in no way connected to our judgment in the impeachment case. The direction of the impeachment proceedings is to deliver an impartial and fair judgment.)
Senator JV Ejercito, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, confirmed Wednesday that the Senate already received the 2027 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) from the House of Representatives.
He, however, questioned the reported realignment of around P206 billion in the House’s version of the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget for fiscal year 2027. — RSJ, GMA News