Vic Rodriguez: Lawyers to challenge ‘blank items’ in 2025 budget before SC

Senatorial aspirant Vic Rodriguez said Thursday that some lawyers are looking to bring before the Supreme Court the issue of the supposed blank items in the bicameral conference committee report in the 2025 national budget.
Rodriguez, who previously served as executive secretary of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., said that he expects the Marcos administration to answer to the alleged discrepancies in the 2025 budget, which he described as “unconstitutional.”
“Inaaral na ‘yung challenge na dadalhin sa Korte Suprema dahil unconstitutional ang 2025 budget dahil nga ‘yung pinakita ni [dating] Pangulong Duterte na bakante, bungi-bungi sa bilyong-bilyong pisong halaga nung final bicameral conference committee report,” he said in an exclusive interview with GMA Integrated News.
(The group is looking at the challenge that will be brought to the Supreme Court because the 2025 budget is unconstitutional. Former President Duterte revealed some blank items in the final bicameral conference committee report worth billions of pesos.)
“Tinitingnan din nung mga abogado ‘yung criminal liability kung sino man ang dapat managot dahil this is a crime against public interest. Ito ay violative of Article 170 of the Revised Penal Code, ‘yung tinatawag nating falsification of legislative document,” he added.
(The lawyers are also looking at the criminal liability of whoever should be held responsible for it because this is a crime against public interest. This is violative of Article 170 of the Revised Penal Code, which is falsification of legislative documents.)
GMA News Online sought the comments of Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and Presidential Communications Office Acting Secretary Cesar Chavez and will update this story once they respond.
Rodriguez made the remark after former President Rodrigo Duterte and Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro Ungab flagged supposed discrepancies in the bicameral committee report on the recently approved 2025 national budget.
Marcos' former executive secretary said that the challenge questioning the constitutionality of the 2025 national budget would be brought to the Supreme Court “very soon.”
“Hindi naman pupwedeng madaliin sapagkat alam naman ninyo na nadiskubre lamang ito at nailabas lamang last Saturday. And we are in the process of trying to gather as much evidence as we could attach to the complaint or to the petition,” he explained.
(It cannot be rushed because this was only discovered and revealed last Saturday. We are in the process of trying to gather as much evidence as we could attach to the complaint or the petition.)
Rodriguez also stressed that someone should be held liable for the alleged discrepancies as the Filipino people will suffer the consequences.
Malacañang had denounced Duterte's allegations, saying that these should be dismissed as "criminal."
Bersamin has also 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.
Even Marcos himself 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.
Ungab had claimed that there were missing budget amounts for items under the Department of Agriculture and unprogrammed appropriations. He said the blanks could not be considered a typographical, grammatical, or printing error.
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. –NB, GMA Integrated News