Bersamin on Ungab鈥檚 plan to challenge budget in SC: We can鈥檛 stop him
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin (Bibo Nueva España/Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — The Palace cannot block Davao City Rep. Ungabo Ungab’s plan to challenge the 2025 national budget in the Supreme Court (SC), Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said on Friday.
Ungab alleged that there were “blank items” in the national budget signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
READ: Escudero: ‘No blank items on 2025 national budget I signed’
“I cannot stop Congressman Ungab and other similarly minded people who would want to make, put up a challenge,” Bersamin said in a mix of Filipino and English during a press conference when asked for a comment on the lawmaker’s plan.
But he also noted that the Palace would not be held accountable if the high court should find any irregularity in the national budget.
Article continues after this advertisement“Our problem is that we won’t be held accountable if there’s any shortcoming in that matter because it’s a bicam [bicameral conference committee] report,” he said in Filipino.
Article continues after this advertisement“We have nothing to do with the bicam report. Our involvement is only with the finished product signed by the President, not the blank check,” Bersamin continued.
A bicam report is the reconciled version of the General Appropriations Bills from the House of Representatives and Senate.
This bill becomes the General Appropriations Act, or the actual national budget, once signed by Marcos.
READ: Duterte ally: Will raise budget ‘blanks’ issue before SC
On Wednesday, Ungab told the Inquirer that “considering that the P6.326-trillion GAA has already been signed by the President, there is no other recourse than to go to the Supreme Court. There are several groups who are going to the Supreme Court, and I have manifested my intention to be one of the petitioners.”
Ungab was referring to several groups that had already laid out plans to question the national budget at the SC due to its zero subsidy for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and the P12-billion budget cut of the Department of Education.
