House Deputy Speaker Antipolo 1st district Rep. Ronaldo "Ronnie" Puno has apologized to former senator Grace Poe, as he clarified that she wasn't part of the final deliberations on the current P6.352-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) or national budget for 2025.

“By the way, I want to take this opportunity to apologize to Sen. Grace Poe kasi nabanggit ko siya as (because I said she was) one of the three people that were involved in the final drafting of the end result. And I learned that even she was not really allowed to participate in the discussion," he said in an impromptu press conference with fellow party leaders at the House of Representatives Wednesday, Sept. 3.

"So I apologize to her in front of everybody,” added Puno, chairman of the National Unity Party (NUP).

Poe served as Committee on Finance chairperson in the previous 19th Congress, when the 2025 national budget was crafted. The counterpart panel in the House is the Committee on Appropriations.

Poe's term at the Senate ended last June 30.

Puno has been a man on a mission to exonerate the House of Representatives from what he called unfair allegations of corruption in the budget process.

During the presser, Puno relayed the party leaders' collective decision to request the return of the P6.793-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2026 to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). The NEP is the basis of the GAA.

Asked if officials at DBM should be removed or charged, Puno said it is not for Congress to decide. “Well, that’s not for me to decide. We’re in the legislature. They belong to the executive branch. We can only point out the situation as it exists," he said.

"And we’re doing that here. We’re allowing them, in fact, DBM to correct this whole thing. That’s why we’re returning it to them so that we will not correct it for them," noted Puno.

The deputy speaker also called on the DBM and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to end the “blame game” over questionable insertions--which is among the reasons why solons want it returned.

“Kasi DPWH atsaka DBM nagtuturuan. Kung nandiyan na yung magaling na DPWH secretary, siguro matitigil na yung turuan na yan. Ngayon, pagdating sa amin, sana mawala na rin ang turuan namin ng DBM,” he said.

(Because the DPWH and DBM keep pointing to each other. If the competent DPWH secretary is already there, maybe that blame game will finally stop. Now, as for us, we also hope that the finger-pointing between us and the DBM will end.)