• 7 hours ago
Unang Balita is the news segment of GMA Network's daily morning program, Unang Hirit. It's anchored by Arnold Clavio, Susan Enriquez, Ivan Mayrina, and Mariz Umali, and airs on GMA-7 Mondays to Fridays at 5:30 AM (PHL Time). For more videos from Unang Balita, visit http://www.gmanetwork.com/unangbalita.

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Transcript
00:00Controversy in the 2025 national budget is being brought to the Supreme Court.
00:05A congressman and a few groups are asking for the cancellation of the budget
00:10due to the illegal addition to the BICAM report after the ratification of the Congress.
00:16Meanwhile, Senate President Chester Escudero said that nothing was done wrong in the process.
00:22We have first news from Joseph Morong.
00:24A few groups are asking for the cancellation of the 2025 national budget
00:36due to the illegal addition to the BICAM report after the ratification of the Congress' legislative process.
00:51The BICAM report was ratified by both sides of the Congress.
00:58For me, this is uncharted waters because you can only have a reenacted budget if there's no approved budget.
01:07If there's an approved budget, it will be declared invalid.
01:11The Congress will be in a hurry to pass the budget again.
01:15It's possible because an error in legislation can be corrected only with another legislation.
01:24It's really a big problem.
01:25The President refused to cancel the BICAM.
01:27He signed the General Appropriations Act.
01:29This is the law that will pass the budget of the government for this year.
01:33But Ungab said it's right that the BICAM is not included in the enrolled bill.
01:37This is the copy that was removed from the BICAM report that was ratified by the Congress and signed by the President.
01:43The problem is, the ratification of the Congress is the BICAM report that has blanks that are already included in the enrolled bill.
01:50This is wrong and illegal because whatever was added to the enrolled bill, it didn't pass the ratification.
01:57Who's the magician? Someone did magic.
01:59The seeing it after, that's not it. That's not ratified.
02:03Ungab showed in the GMA Integrated News the e-mail of the House Secretary and a copy of the BICAMERAL conference report
02:10to more than 300 congressmen last Saturday night of December 11.
02:15Around 7 p.m. last night, the House of Representatives ratified the BICAM report of the 2025 budget.
02:21The same document.
02:22Why was it ratified? It was ratified because no one saw it.
02:28Senator Amy Marcos was the first to say that there are blanks in the BICAM report,
02:33that's why she didn't sign it.
02:35She was surprised.
02:37I was shocked and I didn't know what to do because I was afraid of the blanks and the lack of data.
02:46There are two different documents that they're referring to.
02:49One is the BICAM report that is really blank and has a lack of data.
02:54The other one, the GAA, is already full of numbers. It's already complete.
03:00It's not just blanks. The GAA itself was signed.
03:04I was surprised that the BICAM report was full of blanks.
03:12Did you see the BICAM report?
03:14Of course.
03:15It's not there anymore?
03:16It's not there anymore because it was signed.
03:20The Congress ratified the budget in December 11.
03:24On December 20, it was submitted to President Bongbong Marcos.
03:28On December 30, the President signed the national budget.
03:32Under the study of the GMA Integrated News Research,
03:35the value of the blanks in the BICAM report is not less than Php138.36 billion.
03:44Php110 billion is for the programs of the Department of Agriculture
03:49and the rest are subsidies for government corporations.
03:52There's nothing wrong with the process of the budget of Senate President Francis Chiza Escudero.
03:57This is the first copy that I signed.
04:00The Committee on Appropriation and Finance was authorized to correct and fill it.
04:06It was also stated in the last paragraph of the BICAM report.
04:10If there is a difference in the GAA in the BICAM report,
04:16the next will be the GAA, the enrolled bill of the GAA.
04:21According to our Supreme Court,
04:23in the long and many decisions, the next will be the enrolled bill.
04:28The signed version of the law will govern.
04:32Now, if there is a lack there, it is only right to question it.
04:36Or, if there is a release because the blanks were filled afterwards,
04:40it is only right not to release it and not to allow it to be released.
04:43The congressman knows that.
04:45The congressman is complaining and raising points related to this matter.
04:50Escudero thinks...
04:51The election is near.
04:53The color of politics is too bright for now.
04:56And maybe in the next few days,
04:58let's not be surprised by additional stories, attacks, or incidents like this.
05:05We are still waiting for the statement of House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
05:09This is the first news.
05:11Joseph Morong for GMA Integrated News.

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