Quimbo on 'blank items' in 2025 bicam report: 'Malicious, politically motivated'

The allegations surrounding the supposed blank items in the bicameral conference committee report on the 2025 budget are “malicious”, “politically motivated", and aimed at sowing discord, Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo said Monday.

The economist-lawmaker insisted that the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) is “lawful, valid, and fully enforceable” despite accusations from critics who threatened to legally challenge the budget before the Supreme Court for “unconstitutionality.”

“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,” Quimbo argued. 

She contended that the enrolled General Appropriations Bill (GAB) is “complete, with no blank allocations among its more than 235,000 line items.”

Although Quimbo did not explicitly confirm the rumored blank items, she said that technical secretariats of both the House of Representatives and the Senate were authorized to implement corrections and adjustments as required, which claimed, did “not affect the integrity nor the legality of the budget.”

Quimbo is currently the acting chairperson of the House committee on appropriation — responsible for overseeing the government’s annual budget — following the abrupt resignation of Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co, a key ally of the Marcos administration. 

Co stepped down from the post just days before former president Rodrigo Duterte and Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab raised red flags about the missing amounts in the bicam report of the 2025 national budget. 

Ungab, a former appropriations panel chair, alleged that the reconciled budget version of the House and the Senate passed by the bicam panel included “blanks” particularly the budget items under the Department of Agriculture and unprogrammed appropriations.

The allegations of the missing budgets were also confirmed by Kabataan Rep. Raoul Manuel, a member of the Makabayan bloc.

Dutertes and the budget

Duterte said that if the allegations were proven true, then the 2025 budget may be deemed “invalid,” asserting that it is not allowed by law.
House Deputy Majority Leader Paolo Ortega V over the weekend insinuated that former president Duterte was raising the issue of supposed blank appropriations as a "deliberate effort" to restore the P2 billion budget cut to the office of his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte.

Ungab and other budget watchdogs have already expressed intent to challenge the legality of this year’s GAA before the SC.

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, former chief justice, stated that while Ungab is welcome to do so,, he maintained that the Palace had no hand in the bicam report, a matter, he claimed, internal to Congress. 

Nonetheless, Bersamin asserted that there were no blank items in the enrolled budget bill, the version forwarded to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s signature.

Quimbo, however, made it clear that all appropriations had already been determined and approved when panel members signed the bicam report. From then on, “no changes were made.”

She stressed that anyone could scrutinize the enrolled GAB, which is publicly available, to see for themselves its “completeness and compliance with due process.”

Tingog Rep. Jude Acidre earlier told the Daily Tribune that critics should have known better about the difference between the bicam and GAA.

“The bicameral report is not the final law. The official document is the General Appropriations Act, not the bicam. The criticisms being thrown around are not just misleading — they’re taken out of context and unfair. Let’s focus on facts, not fear,” he said. 

Progressive groups, watchdogs, and former lawmakers have been calling into question the alleged discrepancies in the bicam report. The Makabayan bloc has long petitioned that the bicam proceedings must be open to media and public scrutiny because the lack of transparency enables questionable insertions that are allegedly surprisingly made behind closed doors.