Legality of unprogrammed appropriations in 2024-2026 budgets under SC review

The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday conducted oral arguments on the legality of the unprogrammed appropriations in the 2024, 2025, and 2026 national budgets. 

According to Sandra Aguinaldo’s report on “24 Oras”, four amici curiae, or friends of the court, appeared before the magistrates. 

Former Finance and Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said that unprogrammed appropriations or standby funds have been part of the national budget since 1987. However, under the current administration, this amount has ballooned.

“From 2005 to 2026, Congress approved unprogrammed appropriations exceeding those proposed by the president only five times. In 2010, under President Arroyo; in 2022, under President Duterte; and from 2023 to 2025 under President Marcos Jr. The increases in the last three years, however, have been particularly large,” he said. 

Former NEDA Director General Solita Monsod also shared the same observation, adding that unprogrammed appropriations are becoming a new form of pork barrel.

“The new pork barrel system versus the PDAF; well, the new pork barrel is obviously obscenely larger in scale. The unprogrammed appropriations were chosen as the place to hide the lump sum appropriations,” she said. 

“In 2022 they started growing, and if you see that high point there, that's when the unprogrammed appropriation started. Wow! They went up to P800 billion, which is more than the budget department appropriations,” she added. 

Meanwhile, former Senate President Franklin Drilon stated that unprogrammed appropriations are not unconstitutional, but they should only be funded if the government has excess revenue.

“It also loses its character as a special appropriation, and instead operates as a disguised general appropriation that may serve to expand the footprint of the original budget submitted by the president. In this perfect storm, your honors, the violation is not found in the text of the law but in the arithmetic of its execution,” he said. 

Solicitor General Darlene Berberabe represented Malacañang and Congress. She said that unprogrammed appropriations are important and are not unconstitutional.

“Unprogrammed appropriations give government fiscal flexibility. They ensure that a windfall does not go undeployed while public needs go unmet. More importantly, the constitutionality of unprogrammed appropriations has already been ruled upon by the honorable court,” she said. 

The Solicitor General also reminded the court of the separation of powers among the coequal branches of government, amid the judicial review requested by the petitioners from the Supreme Court.

“Respect for the separation of powers demands the utmost wisdom of this honorable court. The invalidation of the entire legislative mechanism should not be done unless the petitioners have shown a clear and irreconcilable conflict with the constitution,” said Berberabe.