“It’s public record,” the governor said. “We’ve followed through on their request. It’s open to everyone. We do have [the Office of the Public Auditor] and [the Office of the Attorney General], and we’ve been working and doing everything that we need to do, and we’ll continue to do that. We have a global pandemic here. I asked [the House] to also allocate their energy and resources to bring us back both economically and socially.”
The House of Representatives in session Monday on Capital Hill. Photo by K-Andrea Evarose S. Limol
As for Press Secretary Kevin Bautista’s comment that the minority bloc “chooses not to legislate any real solutions to assist with the Covid-19 response or our economic downturn, but instead chooses to play divisive politics to score cheap political points,” House Minority Leader Ed Propst said:
“I often turn a blind eye because we welcome criticism at all angles, whether it comes from our constituents, or the administration, or whoever else, but I was a little bit perturbed to read the Press Secretary Kevin Bautista’s attacks on the minority. A personal attack on myself, I’d probably be silent about it. But he’s attacking my good colleagues in the minority, and an attack on the minority is also an attack on the leadership in the sense that we are a separate branch of the government. We don’t bow, we don’t kowtow to the administration.”
Propst added, “To say that we’re being political when we’ve been asked time and time again to look at certain documents, it’s a slap in our face. We are not accusing or attacking the governor. We have simply said that we are looking into the first class travel and reimbursements. What we have been looking through is something that we were putting forward for all of us to do. This is not the minority against the majority. We are a separate branch. This is one body.”
Propst said “it’s disappointing to be told, ‘Well, you guys have to save us, and come up with revenue generating bills.’ We have introduced revenue generating bills. If you recall, my colleague Representative Villagomez and a few others have signed off on legislation to tax the casino, from the very beginning, from the get go. Had that been in place, even in a small 5%, we would have [at least] probably over 100 million dollars by now.”
He added, “So when you attack my colleagues and say that we haven’t come up with any revenue-generating bills, and that we are being politically divisive, I say this: we were all given those documents, we were asked to look into it, we have done that, and we continue to do that. We are not neglecting constituents, nor are we making this political by attacking the governor. In fact, we are willing to sit down with him and talk with him about some of the questions we have, anytime, anyplace.”
Propst said he continues “to do what we can because we report to the people. All of us do. I feel that when we say that we’re being politically divisive and attacking during a pandemic, are we not supposed to do our jobs? Are we supposed to neglect our duties? Should we just ignore it all because the press secretary accuses me and my colleagues of being politically divisive? We have a job to do. When he says that there are no laws that have been broken, I beg to differ.”
Propst stated for the record that none of the members of the House have flown first-class on government dime, and added, “Why is it okay for the governor to do so? There’s a $1,000 fine for every infraction, and we said nothing about it. I know all of you, Mr. Speaker and colleagues, and I know we’re going to do the right thing. It’s been a slow process because things don’t happen overnight. We have to make sure that we’re doing the right thing.”
Speaker Blas Jonathan T. Attao, for his part, said: “For the record, we’re all members of the Legislature. I’ve never said anything about majority or minority. I’ve always said that we’re members of this body and we come into work as members of the House.”
