[In This Economy] Who filled in the blanks in the 2025 budget?

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For once, former president Rodrigo Duterte and Representative Isidro Ungab of Davao City’s 3^rd District, may be onto something.

A few days ago they alleged that there seem to be blanks in the bicameral conference committee report, which was supposed to harmonize and finalize the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) before it was signed into law by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

For Duterte, the blanks are tantamount to a “blank check” that renders “invalid” the 2025 budget law.

For his part, President Marcos said that Duterte was “lying.” Marcos added, “In the whole history of the Philippines, you cannot have a GAA item without indicating what the project is, what will be spent, and what the allocated funds are.”

What’s the real score?

First, Duterte and Ungab are right to note that the bicameral conference committee report contained blanks. Eagle-eyed citizens noted that the blanks all pertain to the agriculture sector’s budget.

For instance, the bicam report said that for the provision on “Small-Scale Irrigation Projects,” the previously stated amount of P1,476,404,000 was to be replaced with “_______” (see below).

In the final version of the General Appropriations Act, as if by magic, this specific blank was supplanted by the amount “P1,026,404,000.” In effect, this is a reduction of the budget for Small-Scale Irrigation Projects. But ideally, this amount should have been spelled out in the bicam report, and not indicated with a blank.

Blanks can be found as well with other agriculture-related programs, namely:

• National Programs of the Department of Agriculture
• Agricultural Machineries, Equipment and Facilities
• Seed Buffer Stocking
• National Fisheries Program
• Postharvest Equipment and Facilities
• Subsidy to the Philippine Coconut Authority
• Subsidy for National Irrigation Systems and Communal Irrigation Systems

Do these blanks in the bicam report mean that there are blanks in the budget? No. The final budget law did contain amounts for these items. In other words, the President ended up approving funds for these projects.

The problem, however, lies in the utter lack of transparency in how these final amounts were provided. Duterte and Ungab rightly pointed out that some amount of budget magic happened along the way, because these amounts should be settled between the lawmakers at the level of the bicam.

The fact that the blanks were replaced with actual amounts means that someone, somewhere unilaterally decided to fill in the blanks — a virtual middle finger to all the lawmakers who should have a say in all steps of the budget process.

In the sense of granting someone unrestricted authority or freedom to act as they see fit, the blanks in the bicam report can be aptly compared to blank checks.

Next, do the blanks invalidate the 2025 budget? The 1987 Constitution doesn’t spell out that the bicam report must not have blanks. But the Constitution does provide that “No provision or enactment shall be embraced in the general appropriations bill unless it relates specifically to some particular appropriation therein.”

This kind of implies that every provision in the GAB must be tied to a specific appropriation, meaning that leaving blank amounts would violate this requirement. This technicality could be raised in any Supreme Court case later on. (Note that many other court cases await the 2025 budget, including the fact that the education sector did not get the lion’s share of the budget.)

Cover-up

Now let’s discuss President Marcos’ rebuttal. He countered Duterte by saying that the GAA cannot contain blanks.

While that’s true, Marcos is sweeping under the rug the elephant in the room, which is the dictatorial way a yet unknown person (or persons) filled out blanks in the bicam report right before the signing of the final budget law.  

Lawmakers who convened the bicam were Representative Elizaldy Co (Ako-Bicol Party-list) and Senator Grace Poe. Maybe they should be the ones grilled for the budget magic that happened.

Meanwhile, Representative Stella Quimbo, who was also part of the bicam and is now the acting chair of the House of Representatives’ powerful Committee on Appropriations, walked briskly and hurriedly entered her van when ambushed by a journalist inquiring about the mysterious blanks. Not a good look.

Bad precedent

Issues concerning the national budget are hardly ever discussed in the public square, because they can be very technical and very fast — more so with the bicam report which, to begin with, doesn’t usually circulate beyond the walls of Congress.

But the blanks “discovered” by Duterte and Ungab call attention to the constant need for the public to be involved in the budget process.

Moving forward, what can we do?

First, I echo the proposal of former senator Ping Lacson to compare side-by-side the bicam report and the enrolled bill that was up for President Marcos’ signature. Even if the blanks affect only a small part of the budget (some agriculture-related items), they can prove enough of an infirmity that can put into question the 2025 budget and the process it went through.

Second, efforts should be exerted into unmasking the personalities who filled in the blanks in the 2025 budget.

Third, Congress should take steps to make the budget process as transparent as possible — especially the bicameral conference committee meetings which have been traditionally closed-door affairs. 

It is in this penultimate step of the budget approval process where much of the budget magic happens, including the much more pressing issues concerning the ballooning of public works projects and unprogrammed appropriations, as well as the defunding of major social services on health and education.

The 2025 budget has the most number of red flags in recent memory. It sets a bad precedent in more ways than one. If we fail to make accountable all who bastardized the 2025 budget (and, in fact, the 2023 and 2024 budgets under the Marcos administration), expect more budget shenanigans in the coming years. – Rappler.com

JC Punongbayan, PhD is an assistant professor at the UP School of Economics and the author of False Nostalgia: The Marcos “Golden Age” Myths and How to Debunk Them. In 2024, he received The Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Award for economics. Follow him on Instagram (@jcpunongbayan) and Usapang Econ Podcast.