ASEANEWS HEADLINE | MANILA: SUPREME COURT(SC) to Congress, Palace: Submit copies of GENERAL APPROPRIATION ACT(GAA)
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SUPREME COURT to Congress, Palace: Submit copies of GENERAL APPROPRIATION ACT
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MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the Senate, the House of Representatives and Malacañang to submit by Feb. 24 the original copies of the 2025 General Appropriations Act and its corresponding enrolled bill following a petition challenging the validity of the GAA.
In a Feb. 18 advisory made public on Feb. 20, the SC ordered the submission of the documents pursuant to the preliminary conference it will conduct on the petition on Feb. 28.
The petition alleges that the GAA is unconstitutional for failing to allocate mandatory funding for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., unlawfully increasing appropriations beyond the President’s recommendations, and allocating the highest budget to public works instead of education.
The petitioners also cited alleged irregularities and supposed blank items in the bicameral conference committee report.
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The SC has set the oral arguments for the petition on April 1 at the SC Baguio Compound.
The petitioners are Davao City 3rd District Rep. Isidro Ungab, former executive secretary Vic Rodriguez, Rogelio Mendoza, Benito Ching Jr., Redemberto Villanueva, Roseller dela Peña, Santos Catubay and Dominic Solis.
An enrolled bill is considered the final copy of the bill, which will then be printed and certified as correct by the secretaries general of the Senate and the House of Representatives. It will then be signed by the Speaker and the Senate President.
A reenacted 2024 national budget won’t be good for the country’s economy, former Senate president Franklin Drilon warned yesterday when asked about the possibility that the SC would declare the 2025 GAA as invalid.
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“A reenactment of the national budget is disadvantageous to the economy because those items of authorization that have already been used, the projects that have been already implemented, cannot be given allocation because it is already implemented. That is the limitation of a reenacted budget,” Drilon said over “Storycon” on One News.
“Once the 2025 GAA is declared as invalid, it would only mean that the 2024 GAA will become effective again because that is what is provided under the Constitution. The failure to pass a budget would mean that the previous year’s budget is reenacted,” Drilon said.
“That is specific in our laws, and should the Supreme Court say that the 2025 GAA is invalid, because the law was not followed, the 2024 GAA will be the bases of the expenditures of the people’s money,” he added.
“The projects and activities which were already implemented can no longer be implemented again because the appropriations for that have already been spent,” he added.
“That is not good because the latitude and the discretion of the President will be widened under the reenacted budget, but the old projects cannot be funded. There are open-close…. a reenacted budget is not really good,” he said.
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“The power of the purse of the Congress will shift to a very substantial portion to the President. The President certainly has the wider leeway in a reenacted budget. There is no question to that,” Drilon said.
“I haven’t studied that yet. But what I know is that a reenacted budget can only fund the salaries of government employees. But new projects cannot be funded. It is a big damage to our economic situation when you have a reenacted budget,” he added.
Drilon said the P12-billion budget of the Department of Education is the only item that may be given supplemental budget because technically, the release of the funds is within the control of the President while the authorization is within Congress.
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Political maneuver
The request in the Office of the Ombudsman to issue and order the preventive suspension of leaders of the House of Representatives is a “blatant political maneuver to disrupt the work of Congress,” House majority leader and Zamboanga City Rep. Manuel Dalipe said yesterday.
Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez and lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, senatorial aspirant Jimmy Bondoc and Citizens Crime Watch’s Diego Magpantay, made the call to the ombudsman more than a week after they filed criminal and graft complaints against Speaker Martin Romualdez, Dalipe, former appropriations committee chairman Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co and Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo for alleged illegal P241-billion budget insertions in the 2025 national budget signed into law by President Marcos in December.
“It is no coincidence that this comes at a time when discussions on the impeachment have gained traction,” Dalipe said.
“Clearly, they are using this complaint as a diversionary tactic to shift public attention away from the real issue – the impeachment case against the Vice President and the accountability questions she must answer,” Dalipe added.
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“This is a desperate attempt to weaponize the ombudsman for political retaliation because the House remains steadfast in upholding transparency and accountability, regardless of political affiliations,” he added.
Dalipe said the tactics of Duterte’s supporters and political allies are meant to pressure the House and create a false narrative that undermines the integrity of its leadership.
“They file cases as news for cover on issues that Duterte faced. Even cases that are nonsense will be filed before the court to divert the issue and make it appear that the members of the House who impeached Duterte are bad,” Dalipe said.
“We trust that the ombudsman will not allow itself to be used as a tool for political games and will dismiss this baseless request for preventive suspension. Speaker Romualdez and the House leadership will continue working for the people, unshaken by these desperate political maneuvers,” Dalipe said. – Jose Rodel Clapano
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