Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin clarfiied in front of House of Representatives members on Monday Sept. 8 that he meant "nothing malicious" when he accused the solons of corruption on the issue of the national budget.

"There is nothing intended that is malicious or to malign anyone in the House of Representatives," a rather meek Bersamin told the congressmen.

Bersamin faced the House Committee on Appropriations Monday to justify the Office of President's (OP) proposed P27.362-billion budget under the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP).

Citing the long tradition of the House in giving "institutional and parliamentary courtesy" to the OP during budget deliberations, Minority Leader 4Ps Party-list Rep. Marcelino "Nonoy" Libanan moved for the early termination of the proceedings.

But Libanan first sought clarification about Bersamin's scathing statement againet the lower chamber Saturday, Sept. 6. "There are pressing issues that need to be clarified," the minority leader said, before reading the particular statement.

"The Cabinet strongly objects to the recent spins coming from certain members of the House of Representatives who are thereby attempting to shift the blame for their own corruption and failures onto the Executive Branch," the 4Ps solon said, quoting Bersamin.

"All our investigations into the anomalies will be futile if the sources of corruption remain unchecked. Hence, we urge the House of Representatives to heed the demand of the people for full accountability: CLEAN YOUR HOUSE FIRST!" continued Libanan, who then looked at Bersamin's direction.

The Palace official--who was accompanied to the budget hearing by presidential son, House Majority Leader Ilocos Norte 1st district Rep. Sandro Marcos--was very respectful in his response to the congressmen.

"It's the elephant in the room," Bersamin said of his statement over the weekend. "But we came here in good faith. We just would like to emphasize that any part of that statement is our statement. We will not shirk from that or avoid the impact."

"But we would like to emphasize today that that statement was more to stress our institutional separation from the House of Representatives, some of whose members--and I hope it is not the majority--have expressed some statement, made some statements that we in Cabinet consider to be against institutional separation of powers," he said.

Bersamin said his statement Saturday "was a consensus of the Cabinet".

"It was more to emphasize our constitutional position and separation and to illicit cooperation and support from the House of Representatives, more than any other," said the executive secretary.

"We do not intend that to rile up the tension between our departments...we come here seeking your support for our institutional budget. I think that is all that I can say at this time," he further said.

ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio, the senior deputy minority leader, objected to Libanan’s motion of swift termination of the OP budget hearing.

Tinio reiterated his stand that the OP should waive the parliamentary inquiry and answer the questions of House members on the budget.

Appropriations panel senior vice chairman, Bataan 2nd district Rep. Albert Garcia subsequently called for a vote, wherein Libanan’s motion won 56-5 (yes-no).

In the end, the OP budget proceedings was concluded in 34 minutes. This was quite longer when compared to previous years of the Marcos administration.

The bulk of the OP's proposed P27.362-billion will be spent on the country’s hosting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit next year, Bersamin said.

Late last month, party leaders in the House headed by Antipolo City 1st district Ronaldo "Ronnie" Puno began assisting the 2026 NEP for supposed questionable entries. These include duplicate appropriations and missing appropriations for flood control projects under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The party leaders have since spotted budget irregularities in other agencies such as the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Health (DOH), and Department of Agriculture (DA).

The NEP or proposed budget emanates from the executive branch through the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).