Hontiveros on 'blank entries' in 2025 budget: 'Wala akong nakita'

Even though she voted against the bicameral conference committee report on the 2025 national budget, Senate Deputy Minority Leader Risa Hontiveros said Wednesday she does not believe that Congress would approve it if it had blank entries. 

Hontiveros said that she and Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel registered negative votes on the bicam report last December to oppose the zero subsidy for the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), and the budget cuts for Department of Education (DepEd) and the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

"Pero naman, hindi ako makapaniwala na kahit aling Kongreso natin, pati 'yung amin ngayon, ay magpapasa ng isang panukalang batas o General Appropriations Act na may blanko pa na linya," she said in an Unang Balita interview.

(However, I would not believe that any Congress would pass a bill or General Appropriations Act with a blank line.)

"Wala akong nakitang blanko nu'ng hindi ko pinirmahan ang bicam report at nu'ng bumoto kami ni Senator Koko ng 'no' sa GAA. Kasi kahit kumontra ako sa budget na 'yan in its final form ay hindi ako naniniwala na ipinasa 'yan ng Kongreso na may blank page pa," she added.

(I did not see anything blank when I refused to sign the bicam report and when Senator Koko and I voted 'no' on the GAA. Because even though I am against that budget in its final form, I do not believe that Congress passed it with a blank page.)

The senator made the remark after former President Rodrigo Duterte and Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro Ungab flagged supposed discrepancies in the bicam report on the recently approved 2025 national budget.

Ungab said there were missing budget amounts for items under the Department of Agriculture and unprogrammed appropriations, emphasizing that the blanks could not be considered typographical, grammatical, or printing errors.

Duterte, meanwhile, said the budget items should not be left empty to be filled up later on. According to the former president, anyone who tampered with the budget could face criminal prosecution.

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., for his part, has dismissed the statements by his predecessor as "lies."

"He's lying. He’s a president, he knows that you cannot pass a GAA without any – with a blank… He's lying," Marcos said.

"And he's lying because he knows perfectly well that that doesn't ever happen. Sa buong kasaysayan ng buong Pilipinas, hindi pinapayagan na magkaroon ng item ang GAA ng hindi nakalagay kung ano 'yung project at saka ano 'yung gastos, ano 'yung pondo (In the entire history of the Philippines, an item in the GAA which does not have any allocated project or fund is not allowed). So, it's a lie," he added.

Malacañang had also denounced Duterte's allegations, saying that these should be dismissed as "criminal." Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin has stressed that all of the 4,057 pages of the P6.326-trillion budget's two thick volumes were exhaustively reviewed by hundreds of professional staff from Congress and the Department of Budget and Management.

Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Joel Villanueva have also denied that the bicam report on the 2025 national budget had blank entries as claimed by Duterte.

Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel, meanwhile, showed a copy of the bicam report that seemingly has parts that are blank or vacant. He said that these were similar to what Duterte and Ungab revealed earlier.

Manuel said that the bicam report, which copy was obtained by GMA Integrated News, was the same document ratified by the Congress in December, based on a 24 Oras report of Jonathan Andal.

The solon recalled that a soft copy of the report was only emailed to lawmakers one week before the ratification and its printed copy was provided one hour before it was brought to the plenary.

Manuel admitted that lawmakers were not able to properly scrutinize the bicam report due to lack of time.

“Sobrang ipit ng oras talaga para mabusisi ‘yan… On my end din, sa totoo lang, hindi rin agad nakita ‘yung mga blanks kasi nga hindi tayo sanay eh na may mga ganoon,” Manuel lamented.

(We were really pressed for time to check the entire report... On my end too, honestly, I was not able to see the blank parts immediately because we were not used to seeing such.)

“Ngayon ko lang na-encounter na nag-ratify ng budget, mayroon palang mga blanks,” he added.

(It was my first time to encounter a ratification of the budget that has blank entries.)

The solon also questioned who filled the blanks in the bicam report after it was ratified.

“After ratification, saka bago pirmahan, sino ‘yung nag-fill in the blanks? So, dapat may sumagot diyan. At ang pwede lang makasagot, ang mga bahagi ng bicam saka ‘yung Pangulo,” he said.

(After ratification and before its signing into law, who filled in the blanks? Someone should answer that. The only one who can answer that are those who are part of the bicam, and the President.)
— VDV/RF, GMA Integrated News