Windows26: Weekend Roundup: Marcos vs Duterte on budget, sex education bill, and more

Hello, reader!

This week, we covered anti-teen pregnancy bill debates, Judy Ann Santos meeting Gordon Ramsay, and President Marcos' response to ex-President Duterte's budget claims.

This is your Weekend Roundup, your weekly fix for everything you need to catch up.

BLANK ITEMS?

Marcos vs Duterte again

Malacañang branded as "lies" the alleged presence of blank items in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), or whose amounts were supposedly meant to be filled out at the behest of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his close associates.

Marcos stood firm that former President Rodrigo Duterte was lying on his allegations that there were discrepancies in the national budget for 2025. "He's lying. He's a president. He knows that you cannot pass a GAA with a blank," the president said.

Senate President Francis Escudero also maintained that the bicameral conference committee report on the national budget for 2025 that he signed had no blank items. He likewise noted that he does not know about the circulating copy of a bicam report.

Although she voted against this year's P6.326 trillion national budget, opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros expressed doubts Congress would pass any budget with blank items, as claimed by former President Duterte.

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, a lawmaker aligned with the Duterte camp, said he would challenge the 2025 GAA at the Supreme Court on how the alleged blanks in the bicameral report were filled in before it became the national budget law.

For La Union 1st District Rep. Paolo Ortega, claims about blank entries in the 2025 budget are merely intended to push for the reinstatement of the slashed allocation for Vice President Sara Duterte.

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