By: Reigh John Bench Almendras
Source: Marcos flags Duterte ‘lies’ on 2025 national budget | Manila Standard
Malacañang on Monday clarified the allegations regarding the empty lines that appear as discrepancies made by former President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte on the recently signed 2025 National Budget.
Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro Ungab shared in a social media interview with Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI) discrepancies he found in the bicameral conference committee report on the 2025 national budget on Jan. 18.
Ungab noted missing budget amounts for items under the Department of Agriculture and unprogrammed appropriations, stating that these omissions could not be attributed to typographical, grammatical, or printing errors.
Reacting to Ungab’s statement, the former president claims that the empty lines in the signed 2025 National Budget are not valid.
“If that happens, something is terribly wrong… I would say that if there are blanks that passed through, that is not valid legislation. If that’s in the law and came out with blanks, it should be filled before or after Congress… If it’s fragmented or missing, it’s not a valid budget for implementation,” Duterte said.
“It’s not just inaccurate; I think the budget as a whole is invalid,” he added.
Meanwhile, according to Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, the allegations made are an act of spreading misinformation.
''Some quarters, including a former president, have maliciously peddled fake news about President Marcos having signed the GAA (General Appropriations Act) of 2025 with certain parts of the enactment purposely left blank to enable the administration to simply fill in the amounts like in a blank check,'' Bersamin said.
''The peddling of such fake news is outrightly malicious and should be condemned as criminal. No page of the 2025 National Budget was left unturned before the president signed it into law,'' he added.
To stress the credibility of the budget, Bersamin highlighted that the 4,057 pages of the P6.326-trillion budget which has two thick volumes were comprehensively scrutinized by hundreds of professional staff from Congress and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Bersamin asserted that the budget underwent a meticulous pre-enactment review by dedicated civil servants to ensure it was error-free.
He also mentioned that a detailed examination of the 2025 National Budget, accessible on the DBM website, would confirm that no programs, activities, or projects have been left with blank appropriations in the carefully vetted law.