Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Wednesday, July 30 rejected insinuations he is one of the corrupt government officials whom President Marcos castigated in his speech during his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday.

In his speech, Marcos told corrupt officials to be ashamed of themselves following the rampant failure of flood projects, saying he saw how ineffective they were against cyclones Crising, Dante and Emong and even against southwest monsoon rains.

“I didn’t feel alluded to…Because you have to remember there is no one in the Senate who is a contractor or supplier (of flood control projects), at the same time a member of the Upper Chamber,” Escudero said in an interview on ANC Headstart.

“I don’t think I can say or we can say the same for the House of Representatives,” he said.

In a press conference on Tuesday, Escudero dismissed as a demolition job those behind “the malicious and baseless accusations” linking him to questionable infrastructure projects ahead of the opening of the 20th Congress.

Escudero said he believes the allegations were meant to stop his reelection as Senate president.

Aside from Escudero, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva was also being linked to these failed flood control projects.

Escudero, however, defended Congress’ right to review the national budget and propose amendments to the National Expenditure Program (NEP) to be submitted by the Executive department.

“While I agree that the administration has the prerogative to pursue it’s proposed budget, under the Constitution, the power of the purse still belongs to Congress,” he said.

Escudero said it is not possible that anything and everything submitted by the Executive branch will be approved “just like that, automatically like a rubber stamp by Congress.”

“If the House is willing to do that and it seems to be afraid to do that then that’s their call. But, on the part of the Senate we will review the budget and we will propose amendments that need to be proposed in accordance with the inputs giving to us as well,” the Senate leader said.

“That’s why, I’m calling on (Budget Secretary Amenah) Pangandaman, that if they don’t want to change the budget much, they should first talk to their secretaries. That’s where we start, not lobbying Congress regarding changes or additional budgets for their respective departments. So that the House and Senate will only discuss the input,” he said.

Moreover, Escudero pointed out that the total realignments to the NEP, compared to the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2025 is nearly P650 billion to P700 billion.

“Assuming they’re accusing the Senate of proposing P150 billion in amendments, which as I said, did not come from me. That’s about two percent of the national budget. That’s about one-fourth of the total amendments,” he explained.

“Why focus on the Senate if you’re not trying to disparage the Senate and those amendments?

“The flood we experienced recently were not due to the projects under the 2025 budget, but projects that were before that. As the Executige Secretary had said, we should investigate the flood control projects that were carried out in the previous Congress and during the previous administration,” he said.

“This should not become a witch hunt against politicians they hate and as such, those behind the demolition job. Which I am very open to,” Escudero said.

Asked if he knew who were his critics, the Senate chief said he believes “it’s coming from the House (of Representatives).”

“But let’s look at history. When there was a problem in the budget, was somebody from the Senate removed? Was there someone removed from the Senate?” he pointed out.

“Wasn't the Chairman of the House of Representatives' appropriations committee removed and replaced because the president himself pinpointed that the problem was there and not in the Senate and not anywhere else?” he further said, referring to Rep. Zaldy Co.

“Yes, he (Co) was replaced. And I think from that day, they haven’t stopped blaming the Senate for whatever happened to them. As they said, your foolishness will catch up with you,” he said.

“It's not our fault, it's not our decision. And we don't interfere with any chairman or change of chairman in Congress,” he reiterated.