* Petitioners say It’s criminal and unconstitutionalA petition seeking to set aside and invalidate the highly controversial General Appropriation Act for the 2025 budget was filed before the Supreme Court over the weekend.
The petitioners, led by lawyer Vic Rodriguez and Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro T. Ungab asserted that the 2025 GAA which had been signed by Pres. Ferdinand R. Marcos is illegal, criminal, and unconstitutional.
In his Facebook post, Attorney Rodriguez said that the Senators and Representatives who are party to the passage of the Bicameral Committee Report are party to what he claimed as the “biggest money heist in the country a kunting to ₱6.352 trillion.
The case stemmed from the disclosure of Former President Rodrigo Duterte and Congressman Ungab that a number of pages of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), also known as the Enrolled Bill, have several blank spaces. Duterte cautioned the members of the Bicam and the Office of the President from passing it as 2025 General Appropriation Act (GAA) stressing that the enrolled bill was signed by the BICAM despite the number of pages containing blank spaces.
GAA contains the annual operating requirements of agencies of government for the entire year.
Instead of acting on the disclosure of Duterte and Ungab however Executive Sec. Lucas Bersamin and Pres. Ferdinand Marcos lashed back at the former President and even called him a liar. They contended that the enrolled bill which the President signed as the General Appropriation Act (GAA) had no blank spaces. The Department of Budget also issued a statement that what Ungab and Duterte got was a different document.
Morever copies of signed enrolled bills with blank spaces surfaced the latest of which was an unsolicited confession from Acting Chairman of the Approriations Committee Stella Quimbo who asserted that there were indeed blank spaces in the signed GAB which Marcos signed into law.
Following the development Executive Sec. Bersamin, in a reversal move, declared on print and broadcast media that “The Office of the President would not be held liable if the issue of the supposed blank items in the bicameral conference Committee report on the 2025 national budget will be brought before the Supreme Court”.
Signatories to the Petition for Certiorari and Prohibition include Victor Rodriguez, Isidro T Ungab, Rogelio A. Mendoza, Benito O. Ching, Redemberto Villanueva, Roselee dela Peña , Santos Catubay and Dominic Solis.
Ungab had been Chairman of the Appropriations Committee for a number of years. He was a banker before he joined politics.
Named respondents are Speaker Martin Romualdez representing the House of Representatives, Senate President Francis Escudero representing the Senate and Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin of the Office of the President.
