<\/p>\n
MALACANANG <\/strong>has nothing to do with the \u201cblank pages\u201d in the Bicameral Conference Committee report on the 2025 national budget, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said on Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAlisin natin sa consciousness ninyo na kami ay may kinalaman sa mga blank pages na sinasabi ninyo,\u201d Bersamin said at a press conference.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bersamin emphasized the Executive Branch, including President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., had no role in the supposed blank items in the Bicameral Conference Committee report.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThat is why we resented the impression that the President was given a blank check,\u201d he added.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Former President Rodrigo Duterte earlier alleged that blank items without specified projects or funding existed in the GAA.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bersamin categorically denied these claims, calling them \u201cfake news\u201d and accusing critics of trying to falsely implicate the President for filling in these blank pages.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cKaya namin sinasabi na fake news \u2018yan dahil binibintang kay Presidente \u2018yung pag-fill up. Even if that is not what they said, that is the impression they want to give to the public, which is very wrong, very malicious,\u201d he stressed.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bersamin further clarified the Executive Branch \u201cdid not benefit at all from the blank spaces that are being circulated.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Earlier, President Marcos also refuted the claims about blank pages, saying it was impossible for the budget to be passed with blank items.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cKaya ako I came out with a very strong statement diyan and the President was very blunt also in saying that whatever the former president was saying about this is a lie,\u201d Bersamin remarked.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Bersamin also urged the public to direct their inquiries to Congress regarding the issue.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cGusto kong malaman ng taumbayan na wala talaga kaming kinalaman diyan. Tanungin ninyo ang mga congressmen, mga senators. And that is all that we can say at this point,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MALACANANG has nothing to do with the “blank pages” in the Bicameral Conference Committee report on the 2025 national budget, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bersamin.jpg",1024,570,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bersamin-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bersamin-300x167.jpg",300,167,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bersamin-768x428.jpg",640,357,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bersamin.jpg",640,356,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bersamin.jpg",1024,570,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bersamin.jpg",1024,570,false],"kreeti-slider-full":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bersamin.jpg",1024,570,false],"kreeti-featured":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bersamin.jpg",1024,570,false],"kreeti-medium":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bersamin-720x530.jpg",720,530,true],"kreeti-medium-square":["https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bersamin-350x350.jpg",350,350,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"National<\/a>","tag_info":"National","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11461,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11459\/revisions\/11461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}