Budget critics politicizing issue

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Solon says GAA legal despite corrections

THE acting chair of the House committee on appropriations yesterday assailed detractors led by former president Rodrigo Duterte, saying this year’s national budget remains legal even if there were adjustments and corrections made at the bicameral level, right before it was ratified by the House of Representatives and the Senate and sent to President Marcos Jr. for signature.

“The 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) is lawful, valid, and fully enforceable,” said Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, stressing that detractors are politicizing the issue by claiming that there are blank entries in the P6.326 national budget for 2025.

Quimbo was echoing the statements of Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, Senate President Francis Escudero and President Marcos Jr., who all maintained that the GAA is legal.

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“Any suggestion of impropriety is unfounded and appears to be politically motivated rather than prompted by genuinely substantive concerns. It is unfortunate that an administrative matter is being maliciously misconstrued to create controversy where there is none,” she said.

Quimbo, an economist, explained that the enrolled General Appropriations Bill (GAB) is complete, with no blank allocations among its more than 235,000 line items.

She, however, said the bicameral report “explicitly authorized the technical secretariats of both the Senate and the House of Representatives to implement corrections and adjustments as required.”

“These do not affect the integrity nor the legality of the budget. When the members of the bicameral committee signed the report, all appropriations had already been determined and approved — no changes were made. The enrolled General Appropriations Bill has been made publicly available, providing the best evidence of its completeness and compliance with due process. Makikita po ng lahat ito. Walang tinatago (We can all see it. Nothing is hidden),” she said.

Quimbo said the matter has already been sufficiently explained “and at a time when we face far real and urgent national challenges, it would be more productive to focus our efforts on addressing the legitimately pressing needs of our people.”

Earlier yesterday, the administration lawmaker drew the criticism of former Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III, her party mate in the Liberal Party, who asked why Quimbo avoided answering reporters who asked her to comment on the issue last Thursday night as she was rushing to attend another event.

“Why is Rep. Stella Quimbo afraid to tell the truth if there are blanks in the 2025 budget?” Tañada posted on X (formerly Twitter) as he reposted a video of Quimbo dodging questions from reporters who were told by the lawmaker’s staff that she was in a hurry.

Tañada argued that the Marikina lawmaker should be fully aware of these blank items, being the newly installed chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriations and a member of the bicameral conference committee that scrutinized the 2025 budget.

“She should know. She is the newly installed Chair of the Committee of Appropriations. She was part of the Bi-Cam. Is she hiding the truth?” he asked.

Quimbo was senior vice chair of the House appropriations panel that deliberated on the 2025 budget and was one of the members of the House contingent to the bicameral meetings with senators. She was recently named the panel’s acting chair following the resignation of Rep. Zaldy Co (PL, Ako Bicol), who said he needed to focus on his health.

The President last week said Duterte was lying about the alleged missing or blank allocations in this year’s General Appropriations Act, saying a spending measure with blank spaces has never happened in the country’s history and was never practiced by the government.

Duterte and Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab raised alleged discrepancies in the signed bicameral conference committee report on the 2025 national budget and the GAA signed by the President.

Ungab claimed allocations for certain items under the Department of Agriculture (DA) and unprogrammed appropriations were left blank in the bicameral conference committee report that was signed by panel members.

Rep. Raoul Manuel (PL, Kabataan), a member of the Makabayan bloc, has said he also found blank entries in the copy of the bicam-approved version of 2025 budget, which was distributed to lawmakers last December 11, just before it was ratified.

Manuel said he noticed blank entries in programs under the Department of Agriculture: three in the Agri and Fisheries Modernization Program; two in the DA’s National Programs for fertilizer and hybrid seeds; one in small-scale irrigation projects; and another one in agri machineries, equipment and facilities and one in seed buffer stocking.

He said the budget for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources had blanks in the National Fisheries Program and in Post-Harvest Equipment and Facilities while the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) also had a missing allocation for the Coconut and Oil Palm Industry Development Program.

Manuel said also missing was the allocation for subsidy for national and communal irrigation systems under the National Irrigation Authority and another two blank entries for Unprogrammed Appropriations.

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But Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT), also of the Makabayan bloc, said she does not know if the version of the GAB distributed to congressmen which had the blank entries was still a working draft or if it was the final version that was submitted for the President’s signature.

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