{"id":57333,"date":"2015-07-28T14:50:27","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T06:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=57333"},"modified":"2015-07-28T14:50:27","modified_gmt":"2015-07-28T06:50:27","slug":"escudero-withdraws-from-2-senate-panels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/07\/28\/escudero-withdraws-from-2-senate-panels\/","title":{"rendered":"Escudero withdraws from 2 Senate panels"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Senator<\/a>
Senator Francis \u201cChiz\u201d Escudero (Photo from Escudero’s official Facebook page<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 With the budget deliberation soon to be started, Senator Francis \u201cChiz\u201d Escudero resigned as the chairman of two Senate finance panels so that he would not be given the wrong impression of using government resources for political aims.<\/p>\n

Escudero left his position as chairman of the Senate committee on finance and as co-chairman of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Public Expenditures. He has already sent his resignation letter to Senate President Franklin Drilon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank the honorable Senate President for entrusting the undersigned with the critical responsibility of managing the Senate\u2019s role in fulfilling Congress\u2019 due to oversee the Executive Department\u2019s use of public funds and to ensure that the allocation of the same is guided by what is in the best interest of our people,\u201d the senator\u2019s letter read.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, given my public pronouncements regarding a possible candidacy for higher office in 2016, I believe that it behooves me to step down at this juncture to ensure that deliberations on the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) \u2013 considered the single most important piece of legislation passed by Congress each year \u2013 are untainted by suspicions or perceptions of partisan politics,\u201d the letter continued. \u201cIt is, Mr. President, what propriety requires; it is, I believe, what our people expect from us all: delicadeza.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite quitting from two Senate panels, Escudero vowed to still continue efforts of ensuring the passage and constitutionality of the GAB. It can be recalled that the Supreme Court earlier declared the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) unlawful.<\/p>\n

Even after his resignation and consideration of a candidacy, Escudero has yet to officially announce his interest in seeking higher office in next year\u2019s national elections.<\/p>\n

Without the senator\u2019s formal announcement yet, several speculations arose that he would run as vice president alongside Senator Grace Poe who would run for president in the coming elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cSusuportahan ko ang desisyon ni Senator Poe, tumakbo man sya o hindi, anumang pwesto (I will support the decision of Senator Poe, whether she runs or not, whatever position),\u201d Escudero said.<\/p>\n

No falling out with Aquino<\/strong><\/p>\n

Escudero clarified that his irrevocable resignation was only intended to keep the budget deliberations free from politics. He asserted that it has nothing to do with President Benigno \u201cNoynoy\u201d Aquino III.<\/p>\n

\u201cAyaw ko masabi na ang budget ay ginagamit sa personal na interes o partisan politics… (I don\u2019t want to be told that the budget is being used for personal interests or partisan politics\u2026),\u201d he said. \u201cWe remain friends and my support for him (Aquino) continues.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 With the budget deliberation soon to be started, Senator Francis \u201cChiz\u201d Escudero resigned as the chairman of two …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":57334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95,483],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-57333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","category-politics","tag-rewrite","mauthors-cyra-moraleda","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}