Former Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co blamed the Senate for the so-called "blank spaces" in the Bicameral Conference Committee (bicam) report on the final version of the 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

This was one of the biggest takeaways in Co's confidential letter to President Marcos in February 2025, when there was much criticism about the budget measure.

Co--in hiding abroad--recently posted the seven-page letter on his Facebook.

“On a final note, allow me to clarify that the current issues about ‘blank spaces’ in the bicameral conference report are due to the inadvertent omission by the Senate finance committee secretariat,” Co, then chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, said in his letter.

“It is most unfair to blame the hardworking men and women of the House appropriations committee for this faux pax when every year, the Senate has been in charge of finalizing the Bicameral Conference committee reports,” the former congressman wrote.

Co assured the Chief Executive that he would “only sign the enrolled copy of the bill which contains no blank items".

He said the House and the Senate “ensured--through an omnibus provision--that in case of conflict or possible errors, the enrolled copy of the bill always prevails over all other drafts or reports that came before the bill’s enactment".

It is during the annual bicam hearings that contingents from the House of Representatives and the Senate iron out the differing provisions of their respective version of the GAB or proposed national budget.

The final harmonized version--upon the ratification of both chambers--is sent to the President for his signature, after which the GAB becomes the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Co’s Senate counterpart was then-senator Grace Poe, the Committee on Finance chairperson.

It can be recalled that Marcos administration critics used the "blank budget" issue as a major talking point.

No less than former president Rodrigo Duterte questioned the constitutionality of the current P6.352-trillion outlay because of these supposed blank spaces. This led to a case in the Supreme Court (SC), which is still pending.

The petitioners likened the blank spaces to a “blank check” given to President Marcos, which compromised transparency in the GAA. Marcos signed the 2025 budget on Dec. 30, 2024.

In the same letter, Co detailed how, in his opinion, the 2025 budget was mangled.

He blamed then-Senate President Francis "Chiz" Escudero for the fact that for the first time in years, the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) exceeded that of the Department of Education (DepEd).

Co claimed that Escudero demanded that P200 billion be included for senators in the DPWH outlay, but that only P150 billion was accommodated, with the balance spread among several agencies.

“It was also upon SP Chiz’s suggestion that the P74-billion subsidy for PhilHealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corporation) was scrapped,” Co also told the President, referring to the national health insurer.

In addition to the bicam report blanks, the removal of subsidy for millions of PhilHealth members was also questioned before the SC. This case too is still pending.