Acting House committee on appropriations chairperson Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo of Marikina City reiterated that the national budget is legally sound, valid, and fully enforceable.
In a statement Quimbo dispelled doubts and reinforced the assurances made by key government officials, including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and Senate President Francis Escudero.
“The 2025 General Appropriations Act is lawful, valid, and fully enforceable,” said Quimbo, pointing out that the enrolled General Appropriations Bill is comprehensive, and contains no blank allocations among its more than 235,000 line items.
“First, the enrolled General Appropriations Bill is complete, with no blank allocations among its more than 235,000 line items. Second, the Bicameral Report explicitly authorized the technical secretariats of both the Senate and the House of Representatives to implement corrections and adjustments as required,” she said
These points, according to Quimbo, do not affect the integrity or legality of the budget, adding that the enrolled General Appropriations Bill has been made publicly available.
“The public has access to it. There is nothing to hide,” said. Quimbo in response to former Quezon Rep. Erin Tañada’s challenge to her to ‘tell the truth’ about the alleged blank items in the bicameral conference committee report on the 2025 national budget.
Tañada had questioned Quimbo’s knowledge of the issue, given her role as the newly installed chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriations and a member of the bicameral conference committee that scrutinized the 2025 budget.
Tañada’s concerns were sparked by a video of Quimbo dodging questions from reporters about the issue during an ambush interview.
However, Quimbo said that any suggestion of impropriety is unfounded and appears to be politically motivated rather than prompted by genuinely substantive concerns.
The 2025 GAA was signed into law by President Marcos on December 30, 2024, and reflects a 10 percent increase from the previous year, aiming to support economic growth and reduce poverty. The education sector received the largest allocation, with P1.053 trillion, followed by the public works ministry at P1.034 trillion.
Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte had labeled the budget as invalid, alleging that some items were left unfunded to give President Marcos undue discretion over fund allocation.
However, President Marcos denied these claims, stating that passing a budget with blank items is not permissible.
In light of these controversies, the DBM has taken steps to enhance transparency. The DBM has beefed up its website capacity amid ‘fake news’ on the 2025 budget, ensuring that the GAA has been publicly available since January 3, 2025, and has been accessed by thousands of users.