DBM defends unprogrammed funds in 2024 budget

MANILA, Philippines —  The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) maintained yesterday that the nearly P450 billion in unprogrammed appropriations in this year’s budget is constitutional after opposition lawmakers asked the Supreme Court (SC) to nullify the allocation.

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman defended the unprogrammed funds approved on top of the record P5.768-trillion budget for 2024 during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum.

On Monday, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagmanzz, Camarines Sur Rep. Gabriel Bordado Jr. and Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman filed a 27-page petition for certiorari and prohibition on the unprogrammed allocation.

Under the 2024 budget, unprogrammed appropriations increased to P731.4 billion from the original proposal of P281.9 billion. This means that lawmakers inserted P449.5 billion during the bicameral conference committee.

“It is not unconstitutional since it is not yet included in the budget. It is not automatically released unlike those other parts of the budget that we release on day one,” Pangandaman said.

“It is subject to trigger points such as extra revenues and certification from the Bureau of the Treasury. It is not the first time it happened, it already happened before,” she added.

Unprogrammed appropriations provide standby authority to incur additional agency obligations for priority programs or projects when revenue collection exceeds targets, and when additional grants or foreign funds are generated.

“We will have to wait for additional revenues. If there’s none, then there’s nothing to release,” Pangandaman said.

The budget chief emphasized that the DBM is ready to answer the petition filed before the SC.

“We welcome it, that’s how democracy works. At the end of the day, we will be able to know (if it’s unconstitutional or not). But from our end at the DBM, we know it’s constitutional,” Pangandaman said.

“Maybe from their (lawmakers) end, there are still gray areas. The difference lies maybe in the opinion and interpretation. But we will provide whatever data and information when the right time comes,” she added.

‘Selective memory’

House appropriations panel chairman and Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co yesterday accused Lagman of having selective memory for questioning the unprogrammed funds when he allowed such practice for almost two decades.

Co, one of the respondents in the petition, slammed the move of the petitioners.

“Lagman was also once chairman of the House appropriations committee and a member of said panel for almost 15 years and yet not once has he ever complained about unprogrammed funds. Why complain now?” Co said in a statement.

“Was it because he was recently excluded from the bicameral conference committee that he now claims unprogrammed funds are illegal?” he added.

Co noted that Lagman, as a member of the bicameral conference committee on the proposed P5.268-trillion budget for 2023, voted in favor of the same amount of unprogrammed funds in the previous budget.

“Perhaps the gentleman from the first district of Albay is becoming more forgetful,” he said. –  Delon Porcalla