Former president Rodrigo Duterte and Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro Ungab raised concerns over alleged discrepancies in the bicameral conference committee report on the recently approved 2025 national budget.
In an interview posted on social media Saturday, Ungab said that certain budget items for the Department of Agriculture (DA) and unprogrammed appropriations were missing amounts. He emphasized that these gaps couldn’t be attributed to typographical or printing errors.
“These are not just ordinary figures; these are billions of pesos… There are many pages like this… This means there is a discrepancy, so how did this discrepancy happen?” said Ungab, a former chair of the House Appropriations Committee.
“With all these findings, we can see that the bicam report is defective. Why did the members sign it? The House and Senate ratified a defective bicam report. In other words, the General Appropriations Act is affected because the bicam report was defective,” he added.
In response to Ungab’s claims, Duterte stated that budget items should never be left blank to be filled in later.
“If that happens, something is terribly wrong… I would say that if there are blanks that passed through, that is not valid legislation. If that’s in the law and came out with blanks, it should be filled before or after Congress… If it’s fragmented or missing, it’s not a valid budget for implementation,” Duterte said.
“It’s not just inaccurate; I think the budget as a whole is invalid,” he added.
Duterte also reminded Congress that such practices are illegal. “I want to remind Congress, this is wrong… Please correct it, or recall the budget and demand an explanation as to why it arrived like that—blank. It’s like being given a blank check and being told, ‘Do whatever you want with it,’” he said.
He warned that anyone involved in tampering with the budget could face criminal charges.
Duterte also warned government workers to uphold their integrity, or face dire consequences. “If there’s a coup d’état, you might be the first to go. Soldiers, who have already sacrificed for the country, will not tolerate this. They won’t stand for their money being stolen,” Duterte said.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the P6.326-trillion national budget on December 30, vetoing over P194 billion worth of line items not aligned with his administration’s priorities, including certain programs from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).