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Marcos warns of shutdown if Supreme Court rules against 2025 budget

Ian Laqui - Philstar.com
Marcos warns of shutdown if Supreme Court rules against 2025 budget
In this July 2022 photo, then-Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez attends President Bongbong Marcos's first cabinet meeting as a newly elected head of state.
Vic Rodriguez via FB

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has dismissed the petition filed by his former executive secretary, Vic Rodriguez, challenging the constitutionality of the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Marcos called the petition baseless and difficult to justify. The petition, filed at the Supreme Court earlier this week, seeks to declare the national budget "illegal and criminal."

Marcos criticized the motives behind the petition and warned of its potential consequences, saying should the high court rule against government, it will essentially "shut down everything."

“I guess that’s what they want. They want the government to stop working so that their destabilization efforts can succeed,” he said in Filipino in an ambush interview with reporters on Tuesday, January 30.

Marcos added that a Supreme Court ruling against the government could lead to a shutdown of government operations.

Marcos expressed confidence in the government's legal standing, citing assurances from Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra.

“The Solicitor General said we are on solid footing in terms of the constitutionality of the budget,” he said. Marcos also questioned Rodriguez’s arguments, describing them as "very hard" to substantiate.

The petition

Rodriguez filed his petition on Monday, January 27, claiming that the 2025 GAA violates constitutional provisions due to blank items in the bicameral conference committee report.

He argued that these blanks represent grave abuse of discretion and a breach of constitutional directives, including those mandating priority for education and health budgets.

“Clearly, the Bicameral Conference Committee committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction when it signed the committee report on [the] 2025 National Budget filled with blanks,” Rodriguez said in his petition.

The Senate and House of Representatives approved the budget bill on December 11, 2024, after resolving disagreements in a bicameral conference committee. President Marcos signed it into law on December 30, while vetoing P194 billion worth of items he deemed inconsistent with his administration's priorities.

FERDINAND MARCOS JR

GENERAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT

SUPREME COURT

VIC RODRIGUEZ

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