Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — A number of provisions in this year’s budget have lump-sum provisions that are supposedly unconstitional.
This is the contention of a new petition filed in the Supreme Court to stop certain sections of the budget law and corresponding budget circulars. The petitioners want these declared unconstitutional.
The group, led by former Budget Secretary Ben Diokno, claimed that more than P400 billion in lump-sum items are embedded in the budgets of 11 departments and agencies.
They added that these are highly vulnerable to patronage politics.
The group pointed out a scheme adopted by one agency, for example, that creates a new budget item outside that approved by Congress.
Another section, they said, gives a new meaning to savings that would effectively allow questionable realignments.
They also claimed that another item authorizes heads of agencies to realign expenditures — which is not allowed by law.
This is the third petition questioning certain provisions of the 2015 budget.
The petitioners also want Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad and the Congress to explain why they should not be declared in contempt because of the supposedly unlawful budget items, in line with the Supreme Court’s decisions against pork barrel and the Disbursement Acceleration Program.
CNN Philippines’ Anjo Alimario contributed to this report.
