President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday, January 20, called former President Rodrigo Duterte a “liar” for claiming that the current administration’s 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) contains blank items.
The Chief Executive said this in a chance interview with Malacañang reporters in Bonifacio Global City after his predecessor claimed in a podcast over the weekend that there were blank items in this year’s budget.
Duterte said that the budget items should not be left empty to be filled up later on, adding that anyone who tampered with the budget could face criminal prosecution.
“(Duterte is) lying. He’s a president, he knows that you cannot pass a GAA with a blank (budget),” Marcos told the media after attending the launching of the Tesla Center Philippines.
“He’s lying because he knows perfectly well that that doesn’t ever happen. Sa buong kasaysayan ng buong Pilipinas, hindi pinapayagan na magkaroon ng item ang GAA ng hindi nakalagay kung ano yung project at kung ano yung gastos, ano yung pondo,” Marcos added.
According to Marcos, these statements misrepresent the actual process and mislead the public about how budget documents are handled in the Philippines.
To further debunk the claim, Marcos explained that the full GAA, including its 4,000 pages of documentation, is publicly available online for scrutiny. He urged the public not to waste time meticulously reviewing the entire document.
“Wag niyo na busisiin isa-isa. Hanapin niyo yung sinasabi nila na blank check. Tingnan ninyo kung mayroon na kahit isa. Para mapatunayan na tama ang sinasabi ko, kasinungalingan yan,” Marcos said.
Malacañang had already condemned Duterte’s claims about supposed “discrepancies” in the 2025 national budget, calling it “criminal.”
In a separate statement, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin described Duterte’s actions, along with those of others involved, as spreading misinformation.
“‘Some quarters, including a former president, have maliciously peddled fake news about President Marcos having signed the GAA (General Appropriations Act) of 2025 with certain parts of the enactment purposely left blank to enable the administration to simply fill in the amounts like in a blank check,” Bersamin said.
”The peddling of such fake news is outrightly malicious and should be condemned as criminal. No page of the 2025 National Budget was left unturned before the president signed it into law,” he added.
Bersamin emphasized that the two extensive volumes of the P6.326-trillion budget, totaling 4,057 pages, were thoroughly examined by hundreds of professional staff from both Congress and the Department of Budget and Management. (TCSP)
