Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 11) — Makabayan bloc lawmakers and other progressives on Monday filed a petition before the Supreme Court to declare the release and use of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) ₱125 million for confidential funds as unconstitutional.
This was the third petition connected to the controversial transfer to the OVP’s secret funds in 2022, which also sparked debates on the spending item for next year’s national budget.
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Petitioners ask SC to declare ₱125-M transfer for OVP’s confidential funds unconstitutional
Petitioners ask SC to allow disclosure of confidential fund use
“Petitioners likewise pray that the Honorable Court direct the Commission on Audit (COA) to audit as a regular fund the ‘Confidential Funds’ expended by the Respondent OVP in 2022,” the document read.
\”At kung ito ay mapatunayan na ito ay unconstitutional kailangan niyang ibalik. ‘Yun ang prayer natin ibalik sa pondo ng bayan. Mas pakinabangan, mas transparent itong paggasta sa confidential funds,” ACT Teachers Party-list Representative France Castro told reporters.
[Translation: If this is proven unconstitutional, she needs to return the money. That’s our prayer that it will be returned to public funds, and that the spending of confidential funds will be more beneficial and be more transparent.]
Castro, Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas, and Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel led the filing of the 33-page petition before the Supreme Court.
Former lawmakers Neri Colmenares, Carlos Zarate, Ferdinand Gaite, Eufemia Cullamat, and Raymond Palatino, former Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Judy Tuguiwalo, and 13 more progressives were also among the petitioners.
“This obsession for confidential funds has to stop, and Petitioners ask the Honorable Supreme Court to put a stop to this anomaly that has drained so much from our public funds for years,” the petitioners said.
They said the release to the OVP by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of ₱125 million in confidential funds without Congressional authorization violated Section 1, Article VI of the 1987 Constitution which provides that legislative power is vested in Congress.
They also said the president may not source confidential funds from the 2022 Contingent Fund, arguing that the chief executive \”cannot convert a supposedly fully auditable fund into a ‘black budget’ by releasing a portion of the Contingent Fund for confidential purposes.\”
The petitioners said no confidential funds may be released or disbursed by any agency or instrumentality which is not given entitlement to it by the General Appropriations Act (GAA).
“Therefore, since the 2022 GAA did not authorize any amount of confidential expense for the Vice President, the President cannot approve the release of confidential funds to her, and the former cannot disburse as confidential funds any amount released to her,” they said.
A reading of the entire 2022 General Appropriations Act, they pointed out, shows the Congress “purposefully, deliberately, and precisely” withheld any authority to the OVP to handle a single cent of confidential funds.
The Supreme Court directed Duterte and other respondents to answer the earlier petitions challenging the transfer of OVP’s confidential funds in 2022.
In September, the Office of the Executive Secretary said the release was \”legal.\”
Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman previously explained that the ₱ 125 million released to the OVP came from the ₱7 billion budget set aside as Contingent Fund for 2022, and was “intended to support the OVP’s Good Governance Engagements and Social Services Projects.”
At the House plenary in September, Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, the budget sponsor of COA, said state auditors found that the OVP spent the ₱125 million confidential funds in 11 days. The OVP, however, maintained the amount was spent in a span of 19 days.
In a statement, Bayan Muna Party-list, as represented by Colmenares, Zarate, Gaite, and Cullamat in the petition, said it is planning to scrutinize Duterte’s alleged spending of ₱2.697 billion for confidential funds during her six years as mayor in Davao City.
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