President Marcos signs the P6.326-trillion national budget for 2025 in a ceremony in Malaca帽ang on Dec. 30. (INQUIRER / MARIANNE BERMUDEZ)
MANILA, Philippines 鈥� Filing a petition before the Supreme Court (SC) that seeks to declare the 2025 national budget as unconstitutional is nothing but a desperate attempt at political survival, Deputy Majority Leader and La Union 1st District Rep. Paolo Ortega V said.
Ortega, in a statement on Tuesday called the moves taken by Davao City 3rd District Rep. Isidro Ungab, former executive secretary Vic Rodriguez, and their allies as a 鈥渃alculated political gambit鈥� that only aims to 鈥渙bstruct progress and destabilize the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.鈥�
According to Ortega, lawmakers in the House of Representatives stand firm in insisting on the legitimacy of the General Appropriations Act (GAA).
鈥淚 call on my colleagues and on the public to see this petition for what it truly is: a desperate bid for political survival disguised as a constitutional question. The House of Representatives stands firm in its defense of the 2025 national budget,鈥� Ortega said.
鈥淲e trust the Supreme Court to exercise its judicial wisdom and dismiss this petition, as it is clearly designed to obstruct and destabilize rather than to uphold the Constitution,鈥� he added.
Ortega also doubled down on his previous claims that the claims about the GAA鈥檚 legality are only an effort to put back the P1.3 billion funds removed by Congress from Vice President Sara Duterte鈥檚 office.
鈥淟et us not mince words: this petition is an effort to undo the decision of Congress to cut P1.3 billion from the budget of the Office of the Vice President, a decision rooted in Congress鈥檚 constitutional duty to ensure that public funds are judiciously allocated,鈥� Ortega noted.
鈥淚t reflects an alarming pattern of actions aimed at creating political uncertainty and diverting attention from the pressing needs of the Filipino people,鈥� he added.
Claims that the then-proposed budget had blank provisions were raised by Ungab and former president Rodrigo Duterte.聽
They alleged that the budget was illegal since there were portions or line items that did not have allocations before it was approved by the House.
Last Wednesday, Ungab told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he would challenge the legality of the 2025 GAA before the SC.
Copies of the report from the bicameral conference committee 鈥� the small panel that threshed out differences in the House and Senate versions of the proposed budget 鈥� showed that the blanks were mostly with Department of Agriculture and Department of Agrarian Reform programs, like allocations for the National Irrigation Authority and the National Food Authority.
Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo, however, said in an ambush interview on Monday that the 2025 GAA is legal, as the allocations on the then-proposed budget were already decided by the bicam members before both the House and the Senate ratified the bicam report.
Quimbo, who is the acting chairperson of the House committee on appropriations, said that technical staffers of the House and the Senate are allowed to make changes as long as they are ministerial 鈥� noting that these are mere 鈥渃alculator activity.鈥�
However, another Duterte ally in former House speaker and now Davao del Norte 1st District Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez said that the action of putting allocations in blank line items after the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) or the budget bill was approved may fall under falsification of public documents.