Amid lingering concerns regarding the integrity of the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), House Committee on Appropriations acting chairperson, Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo of Marikina City, reiterated Jan. 27 that the national budget is legally sound, valid, and fully enforceable.
Quimbo’s statement seeks to dispel doubts and reinforce the assurances made by key government officials, including President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, the Department of Budget and Management, and Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero.
Quimbo said the enrolled General Appropriations Bill is comprehensive, containing no blank allocations among its more than 235,000 line items, and the Bicameral Report explicitly authorized the technical secretariats of both the Senate and the House of Representatives to implement corrections and adjustments as required.
“These do not affect the integrity nor the legality of the budget,” she said, adding the enrolled General Appropriations Bill has been made publicly available, providing the best evidence of its completeness and compliance with due process.
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,” she added.
The 2025 GAA was signed into law by Marcos on Dec. 30, 2024. The budget reflects a 10 percent increase from the previous year, aiming to support economic growth and reduce poverty. The education sector received the largest allocation, with P1.053 trillion, followed by the public works ministry at P1.034 trillion.
Former president Rodrigo Duterte has labeled the budget as invalid, alleging that some items were left unfunded to give Marcos undue discretion over fund allocation.
Marcos refuted these claims, stating that passing a budget with blank items is not permissible.
In light of these controversies, the DBM has taken steps to enhance transparency. It beefed up its website capacity amid “fake news” on the 2025 budget, ensuring that the GAA has been publicly available since Jan. 3, and has been accessed by thousands of users. ||
