SC asked to junk budget lump sums

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) was asked yesterday to stop the government from using alleged lump sum and discretionary funds in this year’s budget.

In a 30-page petition, the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent the executive from further implementing Sections 65, 70 and 73 of the 2015 General Appropriations Act (GAA) and its special provisions for special purpose funds.

The petitioners led by Philconsa president and Leyte 1st district Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez also asked the high court to order the Commission on Audit (COA) to issue notices of disallowance to all disbursements and releases from the questioned provisions of the budget law.

They also urged the SC to issue show cause order against Congress and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad for “flagrant disobedience, resistance and disregard” of the decisions of the Supreme Court on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

Section 65 of the GAA provides for lump sum appropriations while Section 70 defines savings as portions or balances of any unreleased appropriations in the GAA that were not obligated. Section 73, on the other hand, contains the rules on the realignment of allotment classes and reprioritization of items of appropriations.

Philconsa asked the high court to declare all three provisions as unconstitutional.

“Realignment of allotment classes and reprioritization of items of appropriations are species and varieties of transfer and augmentation prohibited under Section 25 (5), Article IV of the Constitution,” the group said, citing the SC rulings on the PDAF and DAP cases.

Scandalous

The petitioners said an examination of this year’s budget showed “scandalous and unconscionable freight” of lump sum appropriations amounting to

P424,144,763,000 “cleverly embedded” in nine strategic departments and two agencies of the executive department, which the group said were

“highly vulnerable to the whirligig of transactional, rent-seeking and patronage politics.”

The petitioners said it is not yet too late for the SC to act even though there is only about three months left in the fiscal year.

“This case is the golden and historic occasion for the Supreme Court to establish an impregnable wall to block the genre of conscienceless politicians and pol tics to politicize, pollute and desecrate the Constitution in the preparation and implementation of the General Appropriations Act,” read the petition.

Former senator Francisco Tatad, former budget secretary Benjamin Diokno, former national security adviser Norberto Gonzales and Catholic archbishops Ramon Arguelles, Fernando Capalla and Romulo de la Cruz were the other petitioners.

Named respondents were Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., Abad, Congress and the COA.

A similar petition citing similar grounds was filed by a group led by former national treasurer Leonor Briones of anti-corruption watchdog Social Watch Philippines early this month.

The SC ordered the government to answer the petition.  

Abad washed his hands of the alleged P424 billion in lump sums in the 2015 national budget, saying senators and congressmen are to blame for the allocation.

“The 2015 budget is an act of Congress. We are just implementing it,” Abad said in reaction to the petition filed by the group led by Philconsa. – With Delon Porcalla