Manila 6th district Rep. Bienvenido "Benny" Abante Jr. said it was unfair for Navotas lone district Rep. Toby Tiangco to single out Nueva Ecija 1st district Rep. Mikaela Angela "Mika" Suansing--the current Committee on Appropriations chairperson--over his criticisms on the so-called "small committee".

Abante, in an online interview Friday, Aug. 29, said that the activities of the small committee on the national budget came before Suansing's time as appropriation panel chairperson in the 20th Congress.

Abante, the overall chairman of the House quad-committee (quad-comm), also pounted out Tiangco's silence on the matter in the past, despite his being a House member for many years now

“And I would like to say, kawawa naman si Congresswoman Suansing because siya, batang-bata siyang legislator, hindi pa siya, hindi pa niya time ‘yun (I pity Congresswoman Suansing, because she's a very young legislator, she still wasnt, that happened before her time),” said the veteran solon from Manila.

Tiangco, an independent in the House of Representatives, had earlier demanded that Suansing produce the records of the small committee that handled the individual amendments to the current P6.352-trillion national budget for 2025.

This, as Tiangco claimed of shenanigans in the budhet process, which he said should be conducted with utmost transparency.

Abante argued that Tiangco’s criticism was misplaced. He recalled that discussions of the small committees were not new--some may say that they're even traditional--and that Tiangco, as a long-serving legislator, should have raised his objections long before the current budget cycle.

“Oh, hindi pa niya time ‘yun. ‘Di siguro, Toby Tiangco has been there for what, the past Congress, he should have actually complained already on that before that time. Bakit ngayon lang?” Abante said, adding that it was inconsistent for Tiangco to suddenly call for reforms only now.

(Oh, that wasn’t his time yet. Maybe not, Toby Tiangco has been there for, what, the past Congress? He should have already raised that issue back then. Why only now is he complaning?)

The clash stemmed from exchanges during early discussions on the 2026 budget, where Tiangco repeatedly pressed Suansing for records on the small committee proceedings during the previous 19th Congress.

For Abante, such criticism ignored institutional context, as the system of small committees had long existed and functioned under multiple budget chairmen in the past.