Quad-committee (quad-comm) overall chairman Manila 6th district Rep. Bienvenido "Benny" Abante Jr. Is willing to give Baguio City Mayor Benjamin "Benjie" Magalong the opportunity to apologize to House of Representatives members like himself.

In a statement Thursday, Aug. 21, Abante raised the possibility that Magalong may have just been "carried away" by the latter's emotions on the flood control projects issue.

“For me, baka naman nabigla lang si mayor and he does not really mean na kaming lahat dito sa Kamara ay kasama sa mga akusasyon niya (For me, maybe the mayor just got caught off-guard and didn’t really mean that all of us here in the House are included in his accusations)," Abante said.

"If this is the case, a public apology is in order. Pwede namang humingi ng paumanhin at nadala siguro siya ng bugso ng damdamin (If that’s the case, a public apology is in order. It’s possible to ask for forgiveness—perhaps he was simply carried away by a surge of emotion)," he added.

“And as [House] Speaker [Martin] Romualdez said before, lahat kami dito (all of us here) we value transparency and accountability. We will open the door to any witness who brings credible information. Results beat rhetoric every time,” said the pastor-solon.

In recent interviews and clips circulating online, Magalong expressed distrust in how Congress was handling the inquiry on the alleged anomalous flood control projects.

The local chief executive went as far as to describe the investigation as “moro-moro,” a term widely understood in common parlance to mean a "farce".

This is because the mayor believes the House members are involved in the anti-flood projects and are receiving sizeable kickbacks from the contractors.

“So ang sinasabi ba ni Mayor Magalong na kung moro-moro ang aming imbestigasyon dito sa Kamara, magkakasabwat kami? Konting ingat sana sa mga akusyasyon. Madali magbitaw ng mga salita, pero mahirap ito patunayan,” Abante said.

(So if our investigation here is a farce, is Mayor Magalong saying that we are all in cahoots? Be careful with those accusations. It's easy to throw allegations around, but difficult to prove them.)

“Kung talagang naniniwala siya na may guilty sa ilan sa amin dito, huwag sana niyang lahatin (He doesn't need to indict all of us if he believes that only some of us here are guilty). His statements are an insult to the institution that we work hard to preserve and promote. Sana bawiin na ni mayor ang kanyang mga sinabi (I hope the mayor takes back what he said),” he added.