'Krimen talaga yung ginawa': Alvarez decries 'falsification' in 2025 budget, rejects Quimbo’s explanation


At a glance

  • Davao del Norte 1st district congressman and former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said the P6.352-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2025 had been "falsified" in what he described as a "criminal act".


20250128_143448.jpgMarikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo (left), Davao del Norte 1st district Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez (Facebook)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Davao del Norte 1st district congressman and former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said the P6.352-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2025 had been "falsified" in what he described as a "criminal act".

Alvarez, a close ally of former president Rodrigo Duterte, made these remarks Tuesday, Jan. 28 following acting Committee on Appropriations Chairperson Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo’s "admission" that the bicam report on the 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) contained blanks.

“Magpasalamat tayo sa honesty ni Cong. Stella. Yung pag amin niya sa nangyari, inamin niyang nagkaroon ng falsification of legislative documents. Ang parusa diyan pagkakakulong ng prision correcional kasama ang multa,” the outspoken solon said. 

(Let's thank Cong. Stella for her honestly. Her admission is as good as admitting that there was falsification of legislative documents. That is punishable by prision correcional plus fine.)

The GAB is the precursor of the GAA. The bicam report on the budget is essentially the GAA, minus the President’s signature.

It was Duterte's camp that raised the issue on the "blank budget" or "blank appropriations" in the 2025 national budget. This claim suggests that there are irregularities in the current outlay.

“Yung power of the purse nasa Congress yan. Yung budget, kasama lahat nung mga items na nandoon sa GAA, dapat approved ng Congress. Ang nangyari, yung inapprove ng Congress na bicam report, maraming mga blanko. Ang total value ng mga blanko na iyan ay zero pesos. Pero bakit sa GAA may laman na, at yung laman hindi yan iprinesenta sa plenary para ma-ratify?” Alvarez asked.

(The power of the purse lies with Congress. The budget, along with all the items included in the GAA, must be approved by Congress. What happened was, there were a lot of blanks in the bicam report that was approved by Congress. The total value of these blanks is zero pesos. But how come these already contained figures in the GAA, figures that weren't presented to the plenary for ratification?)

Alvarez noted that based on Article 170 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC), falsification of legislative documents is committed when: “any person who, without proper authority… alters any bill, resolution… enacted or approved or pending approval by either House of Congress..." 

The ex-Speaker alleged that it was the appropriations panel that supplied numbers to the blanks in the national budget. 

"In other words, yung mga halagang ininsert nila diyan ay hindi approved ng plenary, kaya hindi authorized ng Congress...walang authority yung paglagay nung amounts and figures. Krimen talaga yung ginawa.” 

(In other words, the amount that was inserted wasn't authorized by Congress since it didn't undergo plenary approval...the insertion of amounts and figures wasn't authorized. What happened was really a crime.)

 

Corrected bicam report

On Monday, Jan. 27, Quimbo responded to blank budget issue by saying that the bicam 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.

Alvarez rejected this explanation, and insisted that the blanks or zeros in the Congress-approved GAB bicam report must be retained in enrolled bill (which the President signs) and the eventual GAA.

"Nagsariling diskarte at nilagyan yung mga blanko ng amounts kahit walang approval ng Congress. Hindi correction yan. Ang tawag diyan, unauthorized insertions. Criminal act yan,” he said. 

(It was a solo decision to fill in the blanks with amounts sans the approval of Congress. That's not a correction. Those are  called unauthorized insertions. That's a criminal act.)

Quimbo, in a short statement Tuesday, insisted that the correction was above board.

"Our position is that the ratification of the corrected bicam report is unnecessary. This is simply because Omnibus Provision 2 of the peport, which was ratified by the members, allows for the possibility of corrections, within limits stated in Omnibus Provision 1 (typographical errors and adjustments as a consequence of amendments)," she said.