Malacañang has nothing to do with the removal of Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co as chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriations.
"I have no opinion on that. That’s the discretion of the Congress," Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said when asked about the removal of Co from the chairmanship of the most powerful position in the House of Representatives.
Bersamin also said that the Palace had no hand on it.
"Ah wala, wala kaming kwan dyan kasi Executive kami (No, no, we had nothing to do with it because we're at the Executive)," the Palace official said in an ambush interview on Wednesday, Jan. 15, on the sidelines of the media launch of Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting Philippines 2025 at the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) central office in Manila.
Co vacated the Committee on Appropriations chairmanship on Monday, Jan. 13, after presidential son, Senior Deputy Majority Leader Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Sandro Marcos made the motion during the first session date of 2025.
Co has been the appropriations panel chief since the start of the 19th Congress in July 2022. He has overseen the House passage of the national budget bills for 2023, 2024, and 2025.