LEADERS of the supermajority coalition in the House of Representatives have dared former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte to file charges instead of maligning the institution from his baseless tirades, following the realignment of Vice President Sara Duterte’s offices’ confidential funds to national security agencies.

The political party leaders regret that he cast aspersions against decisions of the House leadership, claiming this is a “disservice to the diligent members of the House of the People and the very essence of our democratic process.”

“It is critical to remember that the ‘pork barrel’ system, which former President Duterte alluded to, has been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Our Members are firmly committed to respecting and upholding this ruling,” they stated.

“Rather than making sweeping allegations in the media, we advise the former president, if he has tangible evidence of wrongdoing, to present it to the appropriate authorities,” the statement, signed by House secretary-general Reginald Velasco, read.

Duterte spoke ill of the lower legislative chamber in a radio interview last week, ostensibly in defense of his daughter who refused to explain where her P125 million intelligence funds in 2022 went, after the House leadership realigned P650 million of her Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd) funds.

The elder Duterte was a former House member from 1998 to 2001, during the 11th Congress, representing the first district of Davao City.

It can be recalled that during Duterte’s six-year reign, he has repeatedly joked – apparently with double meaning – that he would “kidnap and torture” Commission on Audit (COA) personnel, push them down the stairs, if only to tell and warn them not to publish their adverse findings anymore.

“Don’t comply with that COA son of a bi***! Nothing will happen there. That’s what I hate about flagging. It creates a conundrum and you know that it’s political season. Everyone has tirades, everyone has criticisms. These newspapers act as if they are the epitome of propriety and decency,” he said at one point in 2021, defending former health secretary Francisco Duque III.

“You (COA) make a report. Do not flag and do not publish it because it will condemn the agency or the person that you are flagging. The flagging is spelled flagged, what you are doing is flogging.

Do not just flag. And then no one gets jailed, nothing happens,” Duterte remarked further.

House party leaders comprise the Lakas-CMD headed by Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez, the Nationalist People’s Coalition of the late Danding Cojuangco, the Villar-led Nacionalista Party, the National Unity Party, PDP-Laban, the Party-list Coalition Foundation Inc., among others.

The manifesto also set the record straight that the “decision to reallocate confidential funds to security agencies, especially in the context of escalating tensions with China, was taken in the best interest of national security.”

“It is essential to understand that this decision was made for the benefit of the nation and not as a personal affront to any individual, including Vice-President Duterte,” they said, referring to the OVP and DepEd that she both heads.