strike33 Political survival? I don’t play that game, Ungab tells Ortega

MANILA, Philippines — Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab has disputed a fellow lawmaker’s claim that unearthing issues within the 2025 national budget is merely an attempt at political survival, saying that he does not “deal with that kind of diversions.

Ungab in an interview on Tuesday with reporters covering the House of Representatives was asked about Deputy Majority Leader and La Union Rep. Paolo Ortega V’s accusations — that the moves taken by him and his allies were a “calculated political gambit” that only aims to “obstruct progress and destabilize the administration.

In response, Ungab said Ortega does not even know him, adding that he does not seek any higher position that would require him to play politics.

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“He doesn’t know me, and I have been in Congress for 15 years, this is my last term. No one is running for a presidential post for us to play politics,” Ungab said.

“I will not run for the Senate, I will try to be a congressman again, for re-election only. And also, I don’t deal with that kind of diversions,” he added.

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READ: Quimbo: Blanks in 2025 budget only for final computation

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When quizzed about his motive in claiming that the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) had blank provisions, Ungab said it is just his way of being patriotic—adding that the University of the Philippines (UP) student in him has not died yet.

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READ: Duterte ally: Will raise budget ‘blanks’ issue before SC

According to Ungab, who used to head the House committee on appropriations which crafts the national budget, another issue is that the 2025 budget supposedly did not prioritize the education sector, contrary to the requirements of the 1987 Constitution.

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“That is my motive: Why did you increase the budget for DPWH and why did you investigate? Because if you are a true patriotic Filipino, wake up. Everybody must wake up because the best investment of a country is education, that is the only way we can be globally competitive,” he said.

“The reason why I talked and divulged this is due to patriotism. Because that patriotism and idealism in me as a UP student has not died even up to now. I’m sorry, but I don’t deal with that kind of questions, it’s not politics,” he added.

Ortega did not mince words when he responded to allegations of irregularities in the 2025 budget, which led to Ungab, former executive secretary Vic Rodriguez, and other individuals filing a petition before the Supreme Court (SC).

According to Ortega, lawmakers in the House of Representatives stand firm in insisting on the legitimacy of the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

“I call on my colleagues and on the public to see this petition for what it truly is: a desperate bid for political survival disguised as a constitutional question. The House of Representatives stands firm in its defense of the 2025 national budget,” Ortega said.

Aside from that, Ortega also doubled down on his previous assertion—that the claims about the GAA’s legality are only an effort to put back the P1.3 billion funds removed by Congress from Vice President Sara Duterte’ office.

While a much-anticipated briefing on Saturday failed to deliver a hoped-for overall figure on stimulus, Lan Fo’an did set out plans to boost the beleaguered property sector, ramp up borrowing, and work to get banks lending more.

The accusations that the budget had blank provisions for some line items came from Ungab and Duterte’s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte. Both alleged that the budget was illegal since there were portions or line items that did not have allocations before it was approved by the House.

allways fruits

Last Wednesday, Ungab told the Inquirer that he would challenge the legality of the 2025 GAA before the SC.

Copies of the report from the bicameral conference committee—the small panel that threshed out differences in the House and Senate versions of the proposed budget—showed that the blanks were mostly with Department of Agriculture and Department of Agrarian Reform programs, like allocations for the National Irrigation Authority and the National Food Authority.

However, current appropriations acting chairperson and Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo said in an ambush interview on Monday that the 2025 GAA is legal, as the allocations on the then-proposed budget were already decided by the bicam members before both the House and the Senate ratified the bicam report.

Quimbo said that technical staffers of the House and the Senate are allowed to make changes as long as they are ministerial—noting that these are merely “calculator activity.”

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Earlier, Quimbo also maintained that the blank items in the bicam report on the then-proposed 2025 budget had exact figures already. Furthermorestrike33, she said that it was the Senate committee on finance’s technical staff which prepared the bicam report on the GAB.

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