THE chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations yesterday maintained there is nothing illegal in the additional P449 billion unprogrammed appropriations inserted by Congress in the 2024 national budget since it is intended for emergency projects included in government’s wish list that will only be funded if there are surplus revenues.
“That’s not an obligation or a contract. It’s not part of the National Expenditure Program (NEP), nor part of the programmed funds. It’s just a wish list that will be funded if there are extra funds to help our people and improve our economic growth,” Rep. Zaldy Co (PL, Ako Bicol) told a radio interview in Filipino.
Co was reacting to a petition filed by Reps. Edcel Lagman (Albay), Mujiv Hataman (Basilan), and Gabriel Bordado Jr. (Camarines Sur) before the Supreme Court (SC) questioning the insertion of the unprogrammed funds in the 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
The three lawmakers have asked the High Court to nullify the additional unprogrammed funds, which members of the bicameral budget committee added to the P289.1 billion originally requested by Malacañang in the proposed 2024 NEP, a move which they said is not allowed under Article VI, Section 25 of the 1987 Constitution.
Lagman last Wednesday said Co, in his response to the SC petition, “miserably failed to deny that the bicameral conference committee on the 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) ‘furtively inserted an excess of P449,450,510,000 in unprogrammed appropriations.’”
He said the increase is prohibited by the Constitution which states: “The Congress may not increase the appropriations recommended by the President for the operation of the government as specified in the budget.”
Lagman said Co also failed disprove that the prohibition covers both the programmed and unprogrammed appropriations proposed by the President in the NEP “as the Constitutions does not distinguish between programmed and unprogrammed appropriations.”
But Co insisted that unprogrammed funds are constitutional since these are only released after a certification from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Bureau of Treasury that there is extra revenue.
