Adjustments to the proposed 2025 national budget involving billions of pesos were made even after the legislative branch already ratified the final version of the spending bill that was to be sent to the Palace for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s signature, Rappler’s computation found.
The controversy stems from the numerous blanks contained in the bicameral conference committee report on the disagreements between the House and the Senate on the House-approved General Appropriations Bill (GAB). (READ: [In This Economy] Who filled in the blanks in the 2025 budget?)
All of the projects involved the Department of Agriculture.
The biggest adjustment made was in connection with the DA’s Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Program. In the House-approved document, the total amount to be supplemented in the budgets of various concerned agencies stood at P104.82 billion. The bicameral conference committee changed the amount to blank, and when the President signed the enrolled copy of the budget, the value was reduced to P87.111 billion, equivalent to a deduction of P17.708 billion.
Another major discrepancy was on the National Programs for Rice, Corn, High Value Crops Development, Organic Agriculture, Livestock, and Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture. The House approved a budget of P45.848 billion, but the bicam changed the amount to blank. The version of the budget that the President signed allocated only P36.136 billion to the program, a decrease of P9.712 billion.
There were also increases, the most notable of which was the funding for the National Fisheries Program. The budget approved by the House worth P6.272 billion was changed to blank in the bicam, yet when the President signed the GAA, an additional P2.298 billion was allocated to the program.
The adjustments, based on Rappler’s research, are summarized below.
What’s the issue?
The budget cycle every year is continuous. The executive branch led by the Department of Budget and Management prepares the National Expenditure Program (NEP), which is the President’s proposed budget that will be the subject of congressional approval.
The House receives the NEP, which becomes the basis of the General Appropriations Bill. After the House passes the spending bill, it sends the GAB to the Senate, which passes its own version. Select members of both chambers convene to harmonize disagreeing provisions of their own drafts through the bicameral conference committee.
Once the said committee reconciles the differences, they sign a report which contains the said amendments, ratified separately by both chambers. This is now the final version of the budget, and the House prints an enrolled copy sent to Malacañang for the President’s signature.
The adjustments discovered, however, raise various questions:
- When were the blanks on the bicameral conference committee report filled out?
- Who was responsible for filling out the blanks on the bicameral conference committee report, since the copy signed by the President already had values indicated in the blanks?
- How were the budget cuts and bumps decided upon if the bicameral conference committee members signed a report that contained blanks?
Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro Ungab, who was once chairperson of the appropriations committee, first flagged the blanks during a podcast streamed on the Facebook page of Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte on Saturday, January 18.
Former president Rodrigo Duterte, who was a guest on his son’s online show, claimed that this made the 2025 budget invalid.
President Marcos fired back at his predecessor on Monday, January 20, accusing Duterte of lying, and insisted that the General Appropriations Act did not contain blanks. The GAA, according to the Office of the Ombudsman, “covers the annual operating requirements of agencies of government” and is “the most comprehensive source of appropriation cover for the budget of the government.”
While Marcos’ statement is true, it does not directly debunk Ungab’s statement, since the latter was referring to the blanks on the bicameral conference committee report.
Kabataan Representative Raoul Manuel later echoed Ungab’s concerns, confirming on Wednesday, January 22, that the blanks were contained in the report disseminated to the House members on December 11, 2024, just minutes before the plenary voted on its ratification.
“Every item in the budget, before it is proposed, before it is submitted, before it is approved by whoever, there should be a number. So the existence of blanks on the budget of the Department of Agriculture is a valid issue,” budget expert Zy-za Suzara said in an interview on Facts First Tonight with Christian Esguerra on Monday, January 20.
“We don’t know of course what the reason is because there’s no transparency in the bicam,” she said, referring to the closed-door nature of the deliberations.
Constitutional question?
Some sectors have suggested raising this budget’s constitutionality issues with the courts, but former congressman and budget secretary Butch Abad has doubts these would prosper.
Abad told Rappler he had never encountered the issue of blanks in the bicam report during his time as a lawmaker, as well as during his six-year stint preparing then-president Benigno Aquino III’s budget. He doubts that issues of legality this time around will prosper in courts.
“There is a such thing as doctrine of enrolled bill, which states that an enrolled bill is conclusively presumed enacted in accordance with the procedural constitutional requirements. And if you’re looking for evidence to question that, there is no other evidence beyond the enrolled bill itself,” Abad said.
The Supreme Court will no longer interfere if the House or the Senate followed their internal rules of procedure. I think that flows from the principle of independence of branches,” he added.
Rappler has reached out to Ako Bicol Representative Zaldy Co and Senator Grace Poe, who headed their chamber’s delegations in the bicam, for clarity, but has yet to receive a response.
Poe, in an ambush interview with GMA News on Thursday, January 23, said: “I don’t see any problem [with the bicam report]… When we completed the bicam report and we submitted it as an enrolled bill, it was complete.” – Rappler.com