Prove ‘blank’ claims, Palace dares Ungab
Malacañang challenged Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab to prove his “invention” that there were irregularities in the enactment of the 2025 national budget, which the Palace was confident would later be found to be aboveboard.
“I cannot stop Congressman Ungab and other similarly minded people who would want to put up a challenge,” said Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who served in the Supreme Court from 2009 until his retirement as chief justice in 2019.
“The problem there is, we won’t be the ones who will answer for any shortcomings there because that’s the bicam report,” he said, referring to the congressional bicameral report on the 2025 spending bill.
“We have nothing to do with the bicam report. We are only involved with the finished product that the President signed, not the blank check,” Bersamin said.
In a press conference at the Philippine International Convention Center on Friday, Bersamin said it is Ungab who should prove his allegations that the bicameral conference committee report contained blank items, insinuating that the Palace filled up the blanks.
“He should prove his claims, because we have nothing to do with him. We have nothing to do with the blanks. That’s his invention. If there were really, true omissions, let Congress, the Lower House, the Upper House explain, if any,” he said.
“That should be proven first. It would be hard for him to claim that there are blanks, because we truly do not know, we were not involved at that point,” Bersamin said.
Ungab’s claim prompted his ally, former President Rodrigo Duterte, to claim that the enrolled bill that President Marcos signed into the P6.326-trillion Republic Act No. 12116 last Dec. 30 had blank appropriations.
Mr. Marcos did not take Duterte’s claims lightly and called the former president a liar, adding that Duterte should know that the 2025 national budget cannot be passed with any blank items.
‘Just an opinion’
Duterte’s former chief presidential legal counsel, Salvador Panelo, later clarified that Duterte only expressed an opinion that was based on the claim of Ungab, who said he would challenge the validity of RA 12116, or the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2025.
However, Bersamin said the Supreme Court won’t just stop the GAA from being implemented, even if Ungab seeks a temporary restraining order.
“The Supreme Court will never stop the budget from being implemented, all right? I cannot understand if the Supreme Court will have that tendency to put a stop to it even if any of those challengers will ask for a temporary restraining order, because the government’s function must be run,” Bersamin said.
He said the possibility of reenacting the 2024 national budget could only happen if the 2025 GAA were vetoed or nullified by the high court—and that this possibility would only happen in the latter part of the year after all legal questions surrounding the 2025 GAA would have been resolved.
Bersamin also admitted that Malacañang “resented so much” the impressions that the President was handed a blank check in the form of the 2025 national budget.
“You should remove from your consciousness that we had anything to do with the blank pages. That’s why we resented so much the impression that the President was given a blank check. We had nothing to do with it, that’s an internal issue of Congress. That’s why we will respect the boundaries by not commenting who should be blamed, for now. But I’m sure that we did not benefit at all from the blank spaces that are being peddled around,” he said.
