“NILALARO ba tayo ni Senate President Zubiri?”

That is the question a congressman-member of the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments is asking.

“We are puzzled with the recent actions of the Senate with regard to their treatment of the House leadership and our institution,” Zambales 1st District Rep. Jefferson F. Khonghun, a member of Young Guns or a group of young and progressive congressmen, said.

Khonghun said Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri announced to the whole world on Wednesday that he and Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez have agreed to stop the word war between their chambers and to “work professionally.”

“Yet, on the same day, senators resumed and even intensified their attack on the House by claiming that we inserted a P27-billion ‘ayuda to the poor’ in the 2024 national budget for the People’s Initiative campaign,” Khonghun said.

“This latest incident leaves us now wondering: Has the Senate President lost his moral ascendancy to lead the Senate or is he taking us or a ride? Hindi na ba siya pinakikinggan ng mga kapwa niya senador o talagang niloloko niya lang tayong lahat?” he asked.

Khonghun said the documents on the House-Senate conference committee report on this year’s budget “are now out in public.”

“These documents contain the signatures of senators and congressmen who approved the report, which was ratified in plenary by both the Senate and the House,” he said.

Among those who signed the report was Sen. Imee Marcos, who has started questioning the P26.7-billion Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita (AKAP) program, which is part of this year’s budget.

Sen. Marcos, who was a conference committee member, claimed that the details of the report were not discussed.

“She should have read the document in detail. AKAP was there. She should have asked questions there and then before signing it.”

Khonghun said.

He said the purpose of AKAP is “very clear” in the budget and its implementer is the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

“The fund is not connected at all with the people’s initiative campaign,” he said.