President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has once again asserted that there are no blank items in the bicameral conference committee report for the 2025 national budget. Speaking at the 20th National Convention of Lawyers in Cebu City, Marcos emphasized that he personally reviewed and analyzed the 4,057 pages of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2025.
“I have yet to find those blank items everyone keeps talking about,” Marcos said. “We’ll keep looking, but I’m really convinced they simply do not exist because it is not allowed to exist.”
His remarks come in response to claims by former President Rodrigo Duterte and Representative Isidro Ungab, who raised concerns over alleged discrepancies in the budget. Marcos dismissed these claims, accusing Duterte of “lying.”
The P6.326 trillion national budget for 2025, which Marcos signed into law on December 30, 2024, includes a veto of over P194 billion in line items not aligned with his administration’s priorities.
Earlier this week, House Appropriations Committee acting chairperson Stella Quimbo confirmed that some blank items did appear in the bicameral report. However, she clarified that funding for these items had already been determined before the report was signed.
“Any corrections made by our technical staff were purely ministerial,” Quimbo explained. “There was no discretion involved as everything had been decided by the bicam members before the signing.”
The controversy surrounding the budget has prompted former executive secretary Vic Rodriguez, Ungab, and others to petition the Supreme Court to declare the budget unconstitutional. Despite these legal challenges, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin stated that the Office of the President would not be held liable if the matter is brought before the Court.