After the Philippine Congress ratified the 2025 budget bill, discrepancies were found with billions of pesos worth of adjustments made even after its approval. The controversy comes from numerous blanks in the bicameral conference committee report, raising questions about the decision-making process and the constitutionality of the budget.
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The controversy stems from the numerous blanks contained in the bicameral conference committee report on the disagreements between the House and the Senate on the House-approved General Appropriations Bill . , which is the President’s proposed budget that will be the subject of congressional approval.
Who was responsible for filling out the blanks on the bicameral conference committee report, since the copy signed by the President already had values indicated in the blanks? Former president Rodrigo Duterte, who was a guest on his son’s online show, claimed that this made the 2025 budget invalid., “covers the annual operating requirements of agencies of government” and is “the most comprehensive source of appropriation cover for the budget of the government.”
“Every item in the budget, before it is proposed, before it is submitted, before it is approved by whoever, there should be a number. So the existence of blanks on the budget of the Department of Agriculture is a valid issue,” budget expert Zy-za Suzara said in an interview on“We don’t know of course what the reason is because there’s no transparency in the bicam,” she said, referring to the closed-door nature of the deliberations.
Government BUDGET PHILIPPINE POLITICS TRANSPARENCY CONSTITUTIONALITY LEGISLATURE
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