Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 9) — The Makabayan bloc is set to file on Monday the third petition asking the Supreme Court to declare the ₱125-million confidential fund of Vice President Sara Duterte in 2022 as unconstitutional.
In an online briefing, the bloc announced its intention to challenge the controversial expenses, adding that there is a strong legal basis to question the constitutionality of confidential funds.
“Matibay ang legal basis to challenge the constitutionality of the confidential funds. Walang expressly provided authority ang VP na gumamit nito,” Gabriela Women’s Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas said.
[Translation: The legal basis to challenge the constitutionality of the confidential funds is strong. The VP has no expressly provided authority to use it.]
ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro said the group hopes the secret funds could be returned to the public and officials involved in the spending are held accountable.
The deputy minority leader maintained that there are no line items for confidential funds in the 2022 national budget which deems its spending unconstitutional.
“Ang prayer natin dito ay, una, i-declare itong unconstitutional,” Castro said. “Pangalawa, maibalik ito sa kaban ng ating kabayan. ‘Yun po ang ating prayers at syempre makuha natin ang accountability noong involved na mga officials dito.”
[Translation: Our prayer here is, first, it is declared unconstitutional… Second, it can be returned to the national treasury. That’s our prayers and, of course, we get the accountability of the officials involved.]
The first two petitions in the high court which sought to declare the funds unconstitutional were filed by both legal and economic experts.
