Pinabulaanan ng Malacañang ang mga alegasyong ipinukol ni dating Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte hinggil sa mga umano’y ‘discrepancies’ sa 2025 national budget.
Ayon kay Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, hindi dapat paniwalaan ang mga naturang alegasyon.
Aniya, si Duterte at iba pang indibiduwal ay nagpapakalat ng misinformation.
”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,” sabi ni Bersamin.
Binigyang diin ni Bersamin na lahat ng 4,057 pages ng P6.326-trillion budget ay binusisi ng daan-daang professional staff ng Congress at Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
”This meticulous line-by-line scrutiny is a pre-enactment check performed by dedicated civil servants to ensure that the GAA contained no single discrepancy in the amounts being appropriated,” sabi ni Bersamin.
Dagdag pa ni Bersamin, imposibleng iwang blangko ang funding items.
Ang mga nakalagay sa General Appropriations Act (GAA) tulad ng printed figures ay patunay na walang katotohanan ang mga malisyosong alegasyon.
”Anyone who conducts the same rigorous examination of the 2025 National Budget — which the public can view on the DBM website — will come to the same conclusion: that there is no program, activity, or project at all with blank appropriations in that carefully vetted law,” punto pa ni Bersamin.
Dapat alam aniya ni Duterte at kanyang mga kasama na ang GAA ay hindi dapat naglalaman ng blangkong items.
Matatandaang kinuwestyon nina Duterte at Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro Ungab ang bicameral conference committee report ng national budget. Dito sinabi ni Ungab na mayroong nawawalang budget amounts para sa items sa ilalim ng Department of Agriculture (DA) at unprogrammed appropriations.
Dagdag pa ni Ungab, ang mga blangko ay hindi dapat ikonsiderang typographical, grammatical, o printing error.
Binigyang diin din ni Duterte na hindi dapat iwang blangko ang budget items. Mahaharap aniya sa criminal prosecution ang sino mang magsasagawa ng tampering sa budget.
