'He's lying': Marcos slams Duterte's claims of blank 2025 budget entries
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday dismissed accusations by former President Rodrigo Duterte that portions of the national budget were left blank and intended to be filled in later.
Duterte, alongside Rep. Isidro Ungab (Davao), claimed in an interview that there were discrepancies in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), alleging some items were left blank.
“He’s lying. He’s a president. He knows that you cannot pass a GAA with blanks. He’s lying. And he’s lying because he knows perfectly well that that doesn’t ever happen,” Marcos said during an interview in Taguig City.
Duterte claimed that if blanks were allowed in the budget and it became law, it would render the budget invalid. Marcos countered, stating there has never been a case where a president signed a budget with blank entries.
“In the entire history of the Philippines, the GAA is not allowed to have an item without specifying the project, its cost, and funding. So it's a lie,,” Marcos said, mostly in Filipino.
Alleged bicam report: A fact check
During the interview aired on SMNI—a network previously criticized for spreading misinformation—Ungab presented what he claimed was the bicameral conference committee (bicam) report.
However, comments online suggested some viewers mistakenly believed the document Ungab displayed was the actual budget signed into law.
The bicam report Ungab showed differed from the official budget on the DBM website, with items he claimed were blank actually having specific funding allocations in the GAA.
For instance, Ungab highlighted a section of the bicam report concerning the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Seed Buffer Stocking program.
The item, however, has a clear allocation in the actual 2025 GAA, which shows P994,535,000 for Seed Buffer Stocking.
Budget department refutes claims
In response, the DBM issued a statement calling allegations of blank budget items “completely false and reckless.
The agency explained that the bicam report is not the document signed into law by the president. Rather, it is a reconciled version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) prepared by both houses of Congress. The GAB and bicam report are distinct documents.
This means that the bicam report that Ungab showed could not have been the version that Marcos would sign.
“It is important to note that, under the 1987 Constitution, it is the Bill— the GAB, and NOT the Bicam Report, that is officially submitted for the consideration, and approval or veto of the President,” the DBM said.
While Marcos did veto portions of the GAB before signing it into law, this action is different from leaving items blank.
Palace: Duterte's allegations are 'malicious'
Malacañang also addressed these claims earlier, calling them “malicious.”
“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,” Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said in a statement on January 20.
"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,” Bersamin added.
Bersamin said it was impossible for anything to be left blank.
“Anyone who conducts the same rigorous examination of the 2025 National Budget — which the public can view on the DBM 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,” Bersamin said.
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