House execs face new budget raps: Quimbo confirmed bicam report blanks — Alvarez

In a clear tit-for-tat move, civic groups, joined by supporters of former President Rodrigo Duterte, are preparing falsification charges against leaders of the House of Representatives over discrepancies in the drafting of the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

The complaints will be filed against Speaker Martin Romualdez, former House Appropriations Committee chairperson Zaldy Co and House Majority Leader Manuel Jose Dalipe on 10 February at the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office.

The complainants made the announcement just days after the House impeached Vice President Sara Duterte, with 215 lawmakers signing to endorse the complaint to the Senate.

The Senate, however, went on a break without tackling the impeachment bid.

A group of Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab also earlier filed a case with the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of 2025 GAA that included Romualdez as respondent.

This time the complainants include Davao del Norte 1st District Representative and former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and PDP member lawyer Jimmy Bondoc, supported by Citizen Crime Watch leaders Raul Lambino and lawyer Ferdie Topacio.

The camp of Speaker Martin Romualdez has stated that they will await the formal filing of the complaint.

Alvarez said their case is totally different from the one now pending with the Supreme Court.

In a forum, Alvarez said the case they are preparing “is not about politics.”

“It is clear that Martin Romualdez, Zaldy Co, and Dalipe are the ones responsible for this,” Alvarez said, referring to the fiasco over “blank items” in the bicameral conference committee report of the General Appropriation Bill which was the basis of the budget law signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The group claimed it was Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo, chairperson of the House appropriations panel who confirmed the existence of the blanks in the bicam report.

“Quimbo said that the Technical Working Group (TWG) made the insertions based on the bicameral meetings. The question is, is there a journal (minutes) of the proceedings? The TWG members need to be investigated. They should execute an affidavit stating that they were the ones who filled out the blanks in the budget, with signatures from the bicam members,” Lambino said.

Alvarez explained that the amount of insertions runs to P241 billion.

Impeach cover-up for anomaly?

Topacio on the other hand said the Congress’ problem over the controversial 2025 is now being covered by an impeachment move against Vice President Sara Duterte.

“Given the scale of the problem, they pushed for impeachment. P241 billion is at stake. In view of the amount involved, this is a crime against the Filipino people,” Topacio explained.

Topacio added that he, Alvarez and the Citizen Crime Watch members will file “Falsification of Legislative Documents” charges also on members of the technical working group of the House.

Bondoc, on the other hand, explained he joined the group not because he is a PDP candidate, but as part of the party’s legal team.

“Ours is a criminal case, falsification,” the former speaker explained.

When asked whether any congressmen have already signify an intention to join him in the case, Alvarez said “to be honest none thus far.”

“The reason is that they will lose AKAP, TUPAD etc. I am a lone ranger here,” Alvarez said.

He was referring to the questionable subsidy programs called Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program and the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers Program

Topacio, however, immediately backed up the former speaker by saying, “history tells us, one man can make a difference.”

Blanks debunked as baseless

Recently, social media platforms have been rife with claims alleging irregularities in the 2025 GAA including “blank figures” in the budget signed by President Marcos. However, these claims have been debunked as baseless.

One such post on 19 January on the Facebook page of a political commentator accused Malacañang and Congress of committing fraud through an “illegal national budget with blank amounts.”

The now-deleted post described parts of the 2025 GAA as “blank checks” that could be exploited without accountability.

In response to these allegations, the Chief Executive categorically denied the existence of any blank items in the 2025 GAA. He assured the public that the budget underwent rigorous scrutiny.

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin also dismissed the allegations, reiterating that the Executive branch had no involvement in the supposed blank entries in the bicameral conference committee report.

Bersamin emphasized that the claims of “blank pages” are unfounded and should not be given credence.

No railroaded process

Manila 3rd District Representative Joel Chua refuted the allegations that the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte was “railroaded.”

“We cannot say that it was railroaded because the route we took is allowed by our law; in our Constitution, this is possible,” he said in a news forum on Saturday.

Chua was selected to serve as one of the prosecutors in the impeachment trial.

Chua stressed that the House of Representatives followed procedures.

“We have already seen the contents of [impeachment complaints], this is because of the thorough conduct of the committee hearing. What the contents or results of the committee hearing is what is stated here in Article 2 and then in Article 3, there are only some others that have been added, but the first one, like the threat to the life of our President, we have all seen it — so, that is what was added,” he said.