DBM insists P449B unprogrammed items in 2024 budget are ‘not unconstitutional’

The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Wednesday defended the constitutionality of the P449.5 billion unprogrammed appropriations in the 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) after opposition lawmakers brought the issue to the Supreme Court.

“In our definition, hindi siya unconstitutional (it is not unconstitutional),” Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum.

Pangandaman said the unprogrammed appropriations is constitutional since it is not part of the national budget itself.

“It can only be released if there are certain triggers that will occur,” the Budget chief said.

The DBM had earlier explained that the unprogrammed appropriations, which it described as "standby appropriations,” exist outside the national budget. 

The Budget Department said the unprogrammed items in the 2024 budget are not automatically allocated and can only be released if several funding conditions are met, such as when the government, through the Bureau of Treasury, is able to collect excess revenue in the total tax revenues or any of the identified non-tax revenue sources from its revenue target, or new revenue from new tax or non-tax sources, or should foreign or approved financial loans/grants proceeds are realized.

“It is not automatically released since it will require additional revenues,” Pangandaman said.

On Monday, opposition lawmakers, led by Albay Representative Edcel Lagman,  asked the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order or a writ of preliminary injunction to restrain the respondents from funding, releasing, and implementing the excess appropriation.

They also asked the SC to nullify the excess in unprogrammed appropriations embedded in the 2024 GAA.

Pangandaman is among the respondents in the petition along with Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Senator Sonny Angara, Representative Elizaldy Co, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, and former national treasurer Rosalia De Leon.

The Budget chief said the DBM welcomes the petition filed before the Supreme Court  as it would shed light on the constitutionality of the unprogrammed appropriations in the 202 national budget.

“We welcome it… at the end of the day we will be able to know what is it really? [But], from our end we think it’s constitutional,” Pangandaman said.

“It’s a difference, may be differences in opinion and interpretation,” she added.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III earlier said that the additional P450 billion to the unprogrammed appropriations made by Congress is unconstitutional as the resulting total national budget would be P6.498 trillion, exceeding the P5.768–trillion level proposed by the President.

Angara, however, defended the final version of the budget bill, saying that the constitutional provision only refers to the programmed appropriations or the funds that are specified to fund certain projects.

The DBM, likewise, said “that pursuant to the constitutional provision under Section 29 (1), Article VI, it is prescribed that, ‘No money shall be paid out of the Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law’.”—AOL, GMA Integrated News