Quimbo confirms blanks in budget bicam report but says funding already identified
House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations acting chairperson Stella Quimbo on Monday confirmed that there were blank items in the bicameral report on the P6.325 trillion national budget for 2025. But she quickly added that funding for these items had been identified before the signing of the report.
According to Jonathan Andal's report on "24 Oras," Quimbo was asked if she acknowledges that there are blanks in the bicameral conference report on the budget signed by lawmakers.
“Yes. Notwithstanding any typographical errors or any adjustments that are needed as a result of amendments, ay authorized naman po ang technical staff ng both House and Senate to make all of these necessary corrections,” Quimbo said.
But despite having blank items, she said that the funding for each item in the budget was already identified before the members of the bicameral conference committee had signed the report.
“Lahat ng naging corrections ng ating technical staff, lahat po ‘yan ay ministerial na lang. Ibig sabihin calculator activity na lang po. Wala na po silang discretion, dahil lahat po ay decided na by the bicam members at the point of signing,” she said.
(All the corrections made by our technical staff were only ministerial. This means that only calculator activities were done. They did not have any discretion because everything was already decided by the bicam members at the point of signing.)
According to the omnibus motion in the bicam report, the technical staff of the House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Committee on Finance are “authorized to effect corrections of typographical, grammatical and printing errors, as well as necessary adjustments such as performance indicators and section number of general and special provisions as a consequence of the amendments.”
It added that in case of conflict between the bicameral conference committee report and the printed version of the bill, the latter shall prevail.
But when asked if filling the blanks with certain amounts is considered a typographical error, Quimbo replied: “There are some typographical errors. Dahil ‘yung iba doon ay makikita naman eh (Because some of them can be seen in the bill).”
Further, Quimbo said that there were no more blank items in the enrolled bill which was signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“It is legal, it is fully enforceable, it is valid. Dahil po ang ating enrolled bill, ibig sabihin po ang General Appropriations Bill na nanggaling po sa Congress, ay kumpleto, walang blank. So, that's basically the reason for why ang naging basehan ng GAA ay kumpleto din,” she said.
(It is legal, it is fully enforceable, it is valid. Because the enrolled bill, the General Appropriations Bill that came from Congress is complete, has no blanks. So that’s basically the reason why the basis for the GAA is also complete.)
In a separate statement, Quimbo said that any criticisms on the national budget is mere politicking.
“Any suggestion of impropriety is unfounded and appears to be politically motivated rather than prompted by genuinely substantive concerns. It is unfortunate that an administrative matter is being maliciously misconstrued to create controversy where there is none,” she said.
GMA Integrated News reached out to the Malacanang and Senate for comment.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin also earlier said that there were no blank items in the enrolled bill that was signed into law by Marcos. Any questions on the budget should be directed to Congress, he added. —Vince Angelo Ferreras/LDF, GMA Integrated News