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“ Following the path of the eventual GAA, the missing period where the blanks were apparently filled up was established to be between the release of the deficient Bicam report and the printing of the enrolled bill submitted to the President.
The legality of the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) is undisputed, but a mystery remains regarding the blank items in the Bicameral Conference Committee (Bicam) report.
There appears to be a blurring of the trail leading to the culprit behind this unprecedented occurrence — an incomplete report that was nevertheless signed by 14 senators.
Reviewing the statements made thus far by government officials on the blanks, which were the basis of the complaint now before the Supreme Court, someone seems to be lying.
“I still can’t find those ‘damned blank items.’ We’ll keep looking, but I’m convinced they simply do not exist. It’s not allowed,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said. “Just last month, I had to read 4,057 pages of the General Appropriations Act for 2025 because I reviewed it, analyzed it, and yes, in parts, vetoed it,” Marcos explained.
Following the path of the eventual GAA, the missing period where the blanks were apparently filled up was established to be between the release of the deficient Bicam report and the printing of the enrolled bill submitted to the President.
Circumstances, however, pointed to collusion among members of the Bicam in the switching of budget items.
Former Senator Panfilo Lacson questioned the stone-cold silence of Senate President Chiz Escudero and senators who are Bicam members.
Lacson was among the personalities who verified the existence of the unfinished report exposed by Davao City Representative Isidro Ungab.
Lacson recognized the signatures on the report with the blank spaces as those of Senate President Francis Escudero, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, Majority Leader Francis Tolentino, Senate Finance Committee Chairperson Grace Poe, and Senators Cynthia Villar, Sherwin Gatchalian, Pia Cayetano, JV Ejercito, Joel Villanueva, Juan Miguel Zubiri and Mark Villar.
Some senators who are curiously not members of the Bicam panel also confirmed the existence of the defective report.
Lacson counted 13 pages in the 200-page Bicam report that contained blanks involving the funding for mostly Department of Agriculture (DA) projects, such as fisheries, coconuts, seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation.
It is also interesting to recall that the investigation into the P10-billion Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam found that the usual conduit of the anomalous pork barrel projects is the DA.
Based on those who have seen the Bicam report, the Senate version is different from that of the House of Representatives. “The Senate report has a problem because it contained blanks,” Lacson stated.
The House of Representatives is the one to blame if it is proven that the blank items in the Bicam report were filled out in the enrolled copy of the bill, which is printed by the lower House.
“But if the enrolled bill is filled up, that is no fault of Malacañang. The only fault is [with] the House of Representatives and the Senate… There is a part in the Senate because it wasn’t pointed out when they have a blank report,” Lacson added.
Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Quimbo, however, insisted it was the Senate Committee on Finance’s technical staff that prepared the Bicam report.
Quimbo, incidentally, also conceded the existence of the blank items in the Bicam report.
It was the Senate technical staff of the Committee on Finance who prepared the final Bicam report, she claimed.
That points to Senator Grace Poe, who is a very close ally of Senate President Chiz Escudero. Escudero disputed the existence of the blank items in the report, but not one member of the Bicam has shown a copy of a signed, complete Bicam report.
Amid the finger-pointing between the House and the Senate, the real culprit has emerged.
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Credit belongs to: tribune.net.ph
