Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 17) – The House budget panel chairman thinks that “forgetful” Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman should be a respondent in his own Supreme Court petition assailing the unappropriated funds inserted into the 2024 outlay, which the budget department insists is constitutional.
Lagman and two other lawmakers filed a petition questioning the constitutionality and seeking the nullification of the additional ₱449.5-billion unprogrammed funds in this year’s budget, which raised it from ₱289.1 billion to ₱731.4 billion.
READ: Lawmakers assail constitutionality of extra ₱450-B unprogrammed funds in 2024 budget before SC
\”When he [Lagman] was a member of the Bicameral Conference Committee in 2023, he also approved unprogrammed funds of the same amount as 2024,\” Appropriations Committee chairman and Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co said Wednesday.
Co is one of the respondents in Lagman’s petition.
Co also claimed that Lagman, a former Appropriations chairman and long-time member of the panel, only scrutinized unprogrammed funds in the budget this time around because he was not a member of the recent bicam.
\”Perhaps the gentleman from the first district of Albay is becoming more forgetful,\” he added.
In response, Lagman accused Co of engaging in personal attacks instead of confronting the constitutional issues surrounding the unprogrammed funds.
As in his petition, Lagman pointed out that the 1987 Constitution prohibits the increase of appropriations recommended by the president, and that the charter does not distinguish between programmed and unprogrammed funds.
“The bicameral conference committee report containing the infirm excess was ratified by the House and the Senate with alacrity without revealing or explaining the insertion,” Lagman said.
Lagman also claimed that Co “premeditatedly” wanted the additional unprogrammed funds to be released and implemented “by sequestering the purported excess funds or income of government-owned and controlled corporations as targeted in HB (House Bill) No. 9513, which he recommended for approval.”
READ: HB 9513
“I have not forgotten that the practice of increasing the unprogrammed appropriations was the then-prevailing errant interpretation and practice wherein the prohibition on increasing the President’s budget proposal was limited to the programmed appropriations,” Lagman said.
“It is well-settled that irregular acts committed in the past cannot legitimize their continuation up to the present. What is wrong must be eventually junked,” he added.
This exchange adds to tension between Co and Lagman, who earlier locked horns over the bicam’s insertion of ₱12 billion to the Commission on Elections’ budget for the supposed financing of charter change.
Meanwhile, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman – also a respondent in Lagman’s petition – on Wednesday reiterated that the funds are constitutional as these are only released if agencies meet revenue targets.
Pangandaman also said the Department of Budget and Management is ready to answer Lagman’s petition.
