By Adolfo Quizon Paglinawan

 

True to his reputation as an expert prosecutor, former president Rodrigo Duterte, assisting Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro Ungab, exposed substantial discrepancies in the bicameral conference committee report on the recently passed 2025 national budget.

The bicam report consolidates the Senate and House versions into a single government appropriations bill (GAB) that is submitted to the President, which upon his signature becomes the general appropriations act (GAA).

In an interview that viraled on social media, Ungab asserted while showing a copy of the report there were missing budget amounts or blanks that could not be considered a typographical, grammatical, or printing error, citing items in 13 pages under the Department of Agriculture and unprogrammed appropriations.

“With all these findings, we can see that the bicam report was defective, and why did the members sign it?”, Ungab asked.

Reacting to Ungab’s findings, Duterte said “there’s something terribly wrong. As a matter of fact, I would say that is not a valid legislation when there are blanks.”

“It’s not only inaccurate, but I think the budget, in totality, is invalid. That is not allowed by law. That is falsification under the law. Perjury, forgery, and it can only amount to one thing—criminal action. You can all go to jail for that,” Duterte added.

So who filled up the blanks after the report was signed and ratified by members of Congress?

The logical conclusion therefore is that someone, most probably the Secretary of Budget and Management, before the President signed it.

Lucas Bersamin, a former chief justice of the Supreme Court, said “No page of the 2025 General Appropriations Act was left unturned before the president signed it into law.”

Bersamin even challenged the public to inspect all of the 4,057 pages of the P6.326-trillion budget’s two thick volumes that were allegedly exhaustively reviewed by hundreds of professional staff from Congress and the Department of Budget and Management.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman called Duterte’s allegations “complete false and reckless”.

Her hairsplit however revealed her ignorance of the budget process, and avoidance of the truth when she carelessly turned legalese citing “under the 1987 Constitution, it is the Bill— the General Appropriations Bill, and not the Bicameral Report, that is officially submitted for the consideration, and approval or veto of the President.”

Who is claiming there are blanks in the General Appropriations Act? Nobody.

But when DBM stressed that the GA Bill presented to and signed by the President was a complete document, with no blank pages or missing details, then who filled up the blanks in the ratified bicameral report onto the final GA bill?

Ungab explained that the House and Senate technical staff cannot fill in the blanks as per the omnibus motion; they are only authorized to correct typographical errors or adjust performance indicators.

This is where reputations of the chairmen of both Houses’ appropriation committee become at stake here. Zaldy Co and Grace Poe have a lot of explaining to do. If they were allowed backdoor access by the Secretary of Budget and Management, then as conspirators they together with Bersamin and Pangandaman must be wetting in their underwears by now.

Before we saw the blanks, but we after Marcos signed the bill into act, we don’t!

Smoking gun

Last December 18, in a privilege speech in the upper house, Senator Imee Marcos already blew the whistle on the suspicious blank entries, but nobody, especially her brother the president, listened.

The senator accurately called the phenomenon, “Himala!” (Miraculous!)

Imee expressed dismay with the lack of details, explanations, or concrete numbers in the bicam report. She claimed she was left in the dark about some budget items, when her requests for more data were ignored.

Despite an inclination to get along with peers, I cannot sign any papers in that bicam report that reduced appropriations for legitimate projects and transferred them to pork barrels in AKAP, MAIP and feasted on by DPWH, she added.  

“How can I sign blanks and documents that lacks data?”

Malacanang debunked

But it did not take long for the sitting president and his executive secretary to pillory his predecessor.

Marcos accused Duterte of lying, “He’s a president, he knows that you cannot pass a GAA without any – with a blank… He’s lying… because he knows perfectly well that that doesn’t ever happen.”

Saying it in the vernacular, the president emphasized that “In the entire history of the Philippines, an item in the GAA which does not have any allocated project or fund is not allowed. So, it’s a lie.”

This statement, not Duterte’s, is actually the lie because he appears to be unaware that I has already happened for the first time during his watch.

In its Facebook page last January 20, however, Optic Politics was deservingly cruel to the president and his little president.

It said Bersamin’s recent statement defending Marcos Jr.’s supposed meticulous review of the 2025 General Appropriations Act reeks of desperation, lies, and a pathetic attempt to shield a leader who is clearly out of his depth.

“Instead of presenting hard evidence to silence critics, Bersamin relies on hollow rhetoric, hoping that the public will blindly accept his word. Well, Mr. Bersamin, the Filipino people are no fools.”

Optics cites it first reason – “if there’s truly no truth to the allegations of blank items in the budget, then prove it. Don’t just tell us it’s on the DBM website—publish the actual pages under scrutiny and let independent experts review them. What are you so afraid of? If the budget underwent such rigorous scrutiny, why is your administration scrambling to defend it?”

The page said that the fact that Bersamin and his cabal are quick to shout “fake news” without showing real proof reeks of guilt. The truth is, this administration has mastered the art of gaslighting the Filipino people while lining their own pockets. Bersamin’s word, once respected in the judiciary, now holds as much value as a counterfeit bill.

“Second, Bersamin’s unwavering protection of Marcos Jr. only further exposes this administration’s incompetence. Why is the president silent? If he truly understands the budget he signed, he should address the Filipino people himself instead of hiding behind Bersamin’s skirts.”

Optics continued on to say Marcos Jr. has no clue what he’s doing. His refusal—or inability—to face the public shows he’s nothing more than a figurehead, a puppet propped up by opportunistic enablers like Bersamin who are more interested in preserving power than serving the nation.

“Bersamin’s loyalty to a president who cannot even defend his own policies has turned him into nothing more than a shield for incompetence.”

Finally, Optics said that Bersamin is setting fire to his own legacy as a former Chief Justice, reducing himself to a glorified errand boy for a government steeped in corruption and idiocy.

“His attempts to justify the indefensible are shameful, degrading, and outright disgusting. The man who once symbolized the rule of law is now actively contributing to the decay of governance in the Philippines. Bersamin, you are a disgrace to your office and to the judiciary you once served.”

The FB page concluded that by defending a president who is unfit to govern, the executive secretary is not just failing the Filipino people but actively betraying them.

Voice from China

This issue also did not escape the attention of Asian Century Ph’s fellow pursuing her PhD in Beijing.

Anna Malindog Uy noted that former President Duterte’s metaphor of a “blank cheque” aptly captures the controversies surrounding the Bicam Report tied to the Philippines’ 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

“This evocative comparison underscores the perception that the Bicam Report, intended as a crucial mechanism for ensuring transparency and accountability in the legislative budget process, instead symbolizes unchecked discretion and a lack of safeguards.”

A blank cheque implies trust granted without sufficient oversight, a sentiment that resonates with criticisms of the report’s opacity, missing details, blanks, and potential susceptibility to political manipulation, Uy added.

“By framing the Bicam Report as a blank cheque, this metaphor highlights systemic governance issues, including the risks of pork barrel politics, the absence of detailed scrutiny, and the undermining of constitutional principles.”

Catholics join the protest

Despite the four million from all walks of life, who joined the Iglesia ni Kristo rallies in various parts of the country, the BBM administration has not shred an inch of recalcitrance from their predatory governance.

What is ominous is that Archbishop Socrates Villegas, who reflects the legacy of the late Jaime Cardinal Sin, the prelate that called for the historic People Power at EDSA in 1986, has awaken from slumber and has joined the debate.

“The Bi-Cameral Conference Committee, tasked with formulating a compromise between the bills passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate, seems to have over-reached its power and, in the view of some experts in constitutional law, has in fact acted as a third chamber of Congress, more powerful than either the Lower and the Upper Houses, because it is the version it drafts that is eventually passed into law.

The archbishop explains that the reason that this is a moral concern is that the budget is an issue of what Catholic social teaching calls “distributive justice” – the fair, reasonable, equitable distribution of the nation’s resources, as well as its burdens.

He said that to be truly the result of a democratic process, what is passed into law must be drafted by the common consensus of the people’s elected representatives scrutinizing, debating and voting as the people’s representatives – rather than by a select group that is not fairly representative of the general population.

I will not be surprised if the rest of the Catholic dioceses, as in the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, adopt this pastoral commentary because it was based on two most important modern teachings, Gaudium et Spes (Joys and Hopes), the summary of catholic teachings embodied in  the Second Vatican Council, and Populorum Progressio on the developments of peoples by Pope Paul VI.

Last warning?

Duterte reiterates “You can’t leave blanks when it comes to the people’s money. Congress and the Senate must specify the exact amounts to be appropriated. Blanks, intended to be filled later, are legally prohibited.

Duterte further warned of criminal consequences for falsification or forgery and urged those involved to be held accountable. He called for heightened scrutiny of the report, saying that public documents should be accurate and free from manipulation.

He also reminded the public to remain vigilant and called for anti-graft complaints against those responsible for the blanks, while appealing to President Marcos to mend his ways while still possible, “Please correct it, or recall the budget. Demand an explanation so that people will know that you are not complicit.”

Of course, this will have catastrhopic consequences if the 2025 budget is brought to the Supreme Court to be formally outlawed.

““Nakikiusap ako kung sino ‘yung gumagawa ng ganoon, do not [mess with] the people of the Philippines? Magkagulo tayo.”

(I am begging whoever did [the insertions], not to [mess with] the people. We will all turn to chaos.)

This question repeatedly resonates, as the former President called the attention of workers in the bureaucracy to stand upright and be counted as true Filipinos.

Duterte warned, “Otherwise, you are asking for your early demise. Pag nagcoup d’état ito, patay diyan baka una kayo. Ang ayaw ng sundalo, naghirap na nga sila para sa bayan tapos nanakawan pa sila ng pera.”

(If a coup d’état happens, then you guys would be the first to go. Soldiers do not like it when they are sacrificing for the country, and the people’s money are being stolen).

This is interesting that the anniversary of People Power starts on February 22 of this year.

Will the unrepentant and incorrigible government of President Marcos Jr., survive the fate that his father met, 39 years ago?

Is it time to call the ghostbusters?

   

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