Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin should name the specific congressmen tied to his epic rant against corruption when he faces the House Committee on Appropriations for the Office of President's (OP) budget hearing Monday, Sept. 8.

Thus, said Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon, even as he denied the Palace official's claim that the House of Representatives was deflecting blame on the issue of corruption to the executive branch.

"I think that’s the exact wording that he said [is] to hide their own corruption. So the question to him (Bersamin) tomorrow would be, what is their corruption and who are these corrupt congressmen?" Ridon said in a DZBB interview Sunday, Sept. 7.

“Siguro di-disclose ni Executive Secretary Bersamin sino ‘yung mga tinuturo niyang kongresista na mga corrupt . I think he has to be able to say that to our face,” added Ridon.

In a rather shocking statement Saturday, Sept. 6, Bersamin called out certain House members for supposedly "attempting to shift the blame for their own corruption and failures onto the executive branch".

He even challenged the lower chamber--which is holding per agency deliberations on the P6.793-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2026--to "clean your house first".

The hearings on the national budget are being held in the backdrop of growing public outrage over anomalous and "ghost" flood control projects.

But party leaders In the House recently flagged various irregularities in the 2026 NEP, including instances of double appropriation and missing appropriations on certain projects.

They said these questionable entries tend to get blamed on House members; thus, their initial call to return the NEP to its origin, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). This didn't push through.

Ridon--chairman of the House Infrastructure Committee (infra comm) that's looking into the flood control projects controversy--clarified that no one was pinning any blame on Malacañang.

“Walang naninisi sa Palasyo, walang naninisi sa Pangulo ng Pilipinas sa kahit anong bagay dito sa usapin po ng flood control projects. ‘Yun ‘yung unang kailangang linawin (Nobody is blaming the Palace, nobody is blaming the President of the Philippines on anything about the flood control projects issue. That's what we need to clarify)," he said.

Ridon also took the opportunity to defend the infra comm probe amid continued criticism that the House was effectively "investigating itself".

He says the goal of the inquiry is to establish accountability whether the irregularities trace back to the executive or the legislature, including the House of Representatives.

“Hindi totoo na may deflection dito dahil tutunguhin ng imbestigasyon kung sino po ‘yung abutin nung mga sinisiyasat po natin (It's not true that there's a deflection because the investigation will follow wherever the evidence will lead it to),” Ridon said.