MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday, January 20, accused his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, of “lying” after Duterte said the 2025 budget was “invalid” because the Congress-passed version supposedly included “blanks” for money that would be allocated to certain agencies.

The allegations were made by a Duterte ally, Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro Ungab. 

“And he’s lying because he knows perfectly well that that doesn’t ever happen. Sa buong kasaysayan ng buong Pilipinas, hindi pinapayagan na magkaroon ng item ang GAA [General Appropriations Act] ng hindi nakalagay kung ano ‘yung project at saka ano ‘yung gastos, ano ‘yung pondo (In the whole history of the Philippines, you cannot have a GAA item without indicating what the project is, what will be spent, and what the allocated funds are). So, it’s a lie,” said Marcos in a chance interview with reporters. 

Over the weekend, in the online program “Basta Dabawenyo” that airs via Facebook, Duterte and Ungab were guests, alongside former Marcos executive secretary Vic Rodriguez and Duterte-era Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board chairman Martin Delgra III. 

During the show, Ungab accused the 19th Congress – particularly the bicameral conference committee that reconciled differences between the versions passed by both chambers – of approving a budget that allegedly included “blanks.” Ungab claimed, reading from a document he said was approved by the bicameral conference committee and both chambers of Congress, that agencies under the agriculture department and unprogrammed appropriations contained blanks.

This meant that while the line items were in the bicameral version of the budget, Congress supposedly did not indicate how much was allocated for such programs and agencies this year. Ungab claimed he saw “13 pages” with blanks in what he said was the bicameral conference committee report.

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM), in a statement on January 20, denied the allegations made by Ungab and seemingly endorsed by Duterte, and called it “completely false and reckless.”

“What has been presented by certain misinformed individuals are pages from the Bicameral Conference (Bicam) Committee Report, and NOT the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) nor the GAA,” said the department.

It’s the GAB — which then turns into the GAA once it is signed — that is submitted to the President.

“To reiterate, the Bill presented to and signed by the President is a complete document, with no blank pages or missing details. In no case does the Executive issue a GAA with blank pages or figures. With this, we urge our fellow Filipinos to be mindful, cautious, and to first verify information before making any allegations. Clear and accurate understanding is critical for constructive dialogue,” said the DBM.

In response to Ungab’s allegations, Duterte said: “If it were true, it’s not only inaccurate, but I think the budget in totality is invalid.”

He called for the budget to be “recalled” and asked for an “explanation” of what happened, warning that citizens might abstain from paying taxes over the supposed “blank check” given to the administration.

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, among the Marcos Cabinet officials who led the administration’s efforts to “regain control” of its spending in 2025, earlier denied allegations made by both Ungab and Duterte.

“Some quarters, including a former president, have maliciously peddled fake news about President Marcos having signed the GAA 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,” said Bersamin, who replaced Rodriguez after the latter was booted out of Malacañang not even three months into the new administration.

“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,” said Bersamin. 

Bersamin, in the Monday statement, said the items in the GAA “were exhaustively reviewed by hundreds of professional staff from Congress and the Department of Budget and Management.”

“This meticulous line-by-line scrutiny is a pre-enactment check performed by dedicated civil servants to ensure that the GAA contained no single discrepancy in the amounts being appropriated. It is impossible for any funding items to be left blank, as alleged by misinformed and malicious sources. The true facts and the printed figures appearing in the GAA easily debunk the malicious claims of deliberate blanks being left for filling in,” he said. 

Marcos urged the public to see the budget for themselves, even as he acknowledged that 4,000 pages were hard to scrutinize. “Mayroon namang kopya that’s available on the website of DBM, tingnan ninyo, huwag na ninyong busisiin isa-isa. Hanapin niyo ‘yung sinasabi nila na blank check. Tingnan ninyo kung mayroong kahit isa para mapatunayan na tama ang sinasabi ko kasinungalingan ‘yan,” he said.

(There’s a copy available on the website of the Department of Budget and Management. Take a look at it — you don’t even need to read the whole document. Just look for the items they’re claiming are blank checks. Check if there’s even one, and you’ll see I’m right in saying these are all lies.)

Ungab claimed that it was the bicameral conference committee version that was left blank, with the implication that the executive filled it out. Only a 10-page summary of the bicameral conference committee was made available to the media. Ungab said the document he possessed was more than 200 pages long.

Budget process

In the Philippines, it’s the executive branch that prepares a proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. Both chambers of Congress deliberate on and tackle the proposed budget, which the different agencies must defend. The budget is then passed separately by the House and Senate. It’s the bicameral conference committee that reconciles any discrepancies between the two versions. 

The bicam’s version of the 2025 budget, Malacañang and Marcos himself complained, was far from the version they submitted to Congress. Once bicam and Congress approves the proposed law, the executive can only veto it — either in full, or only for select provisions.

In the end, Marcos vetoed P194 billion, mostly from public works projects and unprogrammed appropriations. The administration also introduced “conditional implementation of certain items” to ensure projects are implemented “under the stated and authorized purpose.”

Malacañang has been trying to find funding for priority projects in 2025 through savings or foreign loans. 

“Anyone who conducts the same rigorous examination of the 2025 National Budget — which the public can view on the [Department of Budget and Management] website — will come to the same conclusion: that there is no program, activity, or project at all with blank appropriations in that carefully vetted law. The former president and his cohorts should know better that the GAA could not contain blank items,” said Bersamin. 

Salvador Panelo, former spokesperson for Duterte, claimed Marcos’ reaction was “misplaced” because it was “anchored on the wrong premise.” Marcos was asked for his reaction on “allegation ni (made by) former President Duterte regarding sa blank items.”

While it was not Duterte himself who made the allegations, his discussion in the live Facebook video was premised that Ungab’s claims were correct. 

The exchange is the latest in the brewing conflict between the Marcos and Duterte political clans, once united through a political coalition in 2022. Duterte’s daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, was once Marcos’ education chief. – Rappler.com