Hindi pinalagpas ng mga mambabatas na hingan ng paliwanag si Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin hinggil sa naging pahayag nito na “clean your house first.” Kasunod ito sa inilabas na pahayag ni Bersamin na may ilang miyembro ng Kamara ang nais ilihis ang isyu kaugnay sa maanomalyang flood control projects at ibaling ang sisi sa Executive Branch.
Sa budget briefing ng Office of the President sa House Committee on Appropriations, tinanong ni House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan si ES Bersamin.
“There’s the tradition in the House that we give institutional and parliamentary courtesy to the Office of the President. However, there are pressing issues, which we need to be clarified,” pahayag ni Rep. Libanan
Tugon naman ni Bersamin,” Thank you, Mr. Minority Leader for raising this one, it’s the elephant in the room. But we came here in good faith. Any part of that statement is our statement. We will not shirk from that or avoid the impact.”
Ayon kay Bersamin, “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 made some statements that we, in the Cabinet, considered to be against institutional separation of powers or to raise the confidence in our institution. So we came up with that statement.”
Binigyang-diin naman ni Bersamin na ang nasabing pahayag ay “consensus of the Cabinet.”
Ayon kay Bersamin ang pahayag ay para bigyang-diin ang kanilang posisyon sa konstitusyon at paghihiwalay at upang makakuha ng kooperasyon at suporta mula sa Kapulungan ng mga Kinatawan.
Ipinunto nito na hindi nila nais pukawin ang tensyon sa pagitan ng kanilang mga departament.
Ipinunto ni Bersamin na pumunta sila sa Kamara para humingi ng suporta para sa pag institutionalize sa kanilang budget.
Dagdag pa nito na wala itong anumang layunin na malisyoso o siraan ang House of Representatives.
