THE EXECUTIVE branch has no hand in the alleged “blank” entries in the 2025 national budget, Malacañang said Friday.
This, after Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab earlier said he would challenge before the Supreme Court (SC) the supposed blank items in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
In a press briefing at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said the Palace respects Ungab and other personalities’ plan to bring the issue to the SC.
Bersamin, however, stressed that the executive branch has nothing to do with the alleged blank items in the bicameral conference committee report in the 2025 budget.
“Ang problema natin diyan is hindi kami ang mananagot diyan kung meron mang pagkukulang kasi bicam report iyan. Wala kaming kinalaman sa bicam report. Ang may kinalaman lang kami ay ‘yung finished product na pinirmahan ng Presidente (Our problem with that is that we are not responsible for any shortcomings because that is a bicam report. We have nothing to do with the bicam report. All we have to do is the finished product that the President signed),” Bersamin said.
“Alisin natin sa consciousness na kami’y may kinalaman sa mga blank page na sinasabi ninyo (Let's remove from consciousness that we have something to do with the blank pages you're talking about),” he added.
Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, who was also present at the conference, said the executive branch was unable to see the bicameral report on the 2025 national budget that contains the blank items.
In a podcast video posted to the YouTube account of Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte, former President Rodrigo Duterte and Ungab claimed that at least 13 pages of the budget include items with blank appropriations.
Asked about the possible implication of looming legal constitutional challenges in the 2025 budget, Bersamin said it is “speculative” to comment, until the Palace sees the actual complaint that would be filed before the SC.
Bersamin said it is “very wrong” to blame President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., adding that only Congress can answer the claims about the alleged presence of blank items in the 2025 GAA.
“Gusto kong malaman ng taumbayan na wala kaming kinalaman diyan. Tanungin niyo 'yung mga congressmen, yung mga senator (I want the people to know that we have nothing to do with that. Ask the congressmen, the senators). And that is all we can say at this point,” he said.
“That is why we respect also the boundaries by not commenting kung sino (who is) to be blamed or not but I’m sure we did not benefit at all from the blank spaces that are being peddled around,” Bersamin added.
Meanwhile, in an interview in Iloilo City on Friday, former Senate President Franklin Drilon said he is "certain" that there are no blank items in the 2025 GAA.
"I am certain. I have seen the printed copy and the enrolled bill of the General Appropriations Act. There are no blank items," he told local reporters at the sidelines of the inauguration of the Iloilo Sunset Boulevard, one of his legacy projects in Iloilo City.
The former Senate leader said there might be pages with no amount, but “maybe because of the rush of the work.”
"But the enrolled copy has no blank spaces," Drilon stressed. (Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos/Perla Lena)
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