A funny coincidence, or the House throwing shade?
Attendees of the second round of House budget deliberations for the Office of the Vice President (OVP) noticed that catering staff of the chamber offered them squid for breakfast and lunch.
The humor is not lost on the guests, especially given the context.
When Duterte attended the messy first round of budget deliberations on August 27, she took offense after her nemesis, ACT Teachers Representative France Castro, accused her of engaging in squid tactics.
“Kapag nasusukol na ang pusit ay naglalabas ng maitim na tinta. Ayaw natin ng ganoon. Ang pinag-uusapan dito ay budget. Huwag naman mag-ugaling pusit ang Office of the Vice President,” Castro said. (A squid, when threatened, squirts its black ink. This is not supposed to come to that. We’re talking about the budget here. The OVP shouldn’t act like a squid.)
Duterte didn’t like the “squid tactic” jab, and her champion, Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro Ungab, moved to remove it from the records, but his colleagues voted to retain the comment.
On Tuesday, September 10, guests, including reporters covering at the Nograles Hall of Batasang Pambansa, were served champorado (chocolate porridge) with a side of dried squid for breakfast.
As if that wasn’t enough, for lunch, catering services cooked baby squid and paella negra, a Spanish dish made with rice, squid, and squid ink.
Castro seemed to have enjoyed the meal, uploading online a clip of her eating the dish.
“Ang sarap (Delicious!)” she said.
Of course, the catering staff was unable to serve Duterte a meal cooked from the heart on Tuesday, as she and her entire agency snubbed the budget hearing, frustrating lawmakers who wanted to ask her about her confidential expenses.
This resulted in yet another deferral of budget deliberations for her office, putting on the table a possible decrease in her funding for next year.
Had she attended, she would have been presented with the same squid-themed menu. But given her misgivings with lawmakers, “shimenet” like the joke. – Rappler.com