Tag: unprogrammed fund

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Lacson: Unprogrammed Funds Constitutional, but Must Strictly Follow Safeguards

Unprogrammed appropriations under the Special Purpose Fund in the national budget are constitutional and even necessary, so long as they strictly follow the safeguards or three special provisions under the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson stressed this Tuesday after Supreme Court Justice Ramon Paul Hernando said the practice of integrating unprogrammed appropriations in the GAA is unconstitutional and even “repugnant.”

“With all due respect to Justice Hernando, ‘Unprogrammed Appropriations’ under the Special Purpose Fund is necessary to augment certain items under the Regular Budget as long as the same strictly complies with the three Special Provisions under the GAA, namely: (a) there is an excess non-tax revenue collection; (b) there is an accompanying or new revenue measure and; (c) approved loans,” Lacson said.

“Further, only the President may approve such augmentation due to some justifiable reasons in order to fully implement specific programs, activities and projects (PAPs) clearly identified therein,” he added.

In Filipino: Lacson: Konstitusyonal ang Unprogrammed Funds, Pero Dapat Mahigpit na Sumunod sa Safeguards

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Push to Scrap Unprogrammed Appropriations in 2026 Budget Gains Momentum as Lacson Backs Sotto, Gatchalian

The push to scrap unprogrammed appropriations from the 2026 national budget gained more momentum as Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson threw his full support behind Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Senate finance committee chairman Sherwin Gatchalian.

Lacson said Saturday that he will add his voice to the Senate’s stand if the Senate and House contingents meet on the matter at the bicameral conference committee.

“Our agreement was that there will be no unprogrammed appropriations in the 2026 budget, but we will allow funding for foreign-assisted projects that are necessary. Funds in the unprogrammed appropriations for other purposes will be removed,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino, in an interview on DZMM radio.

In Filipino: Lacson, Suportado sina Sotto at Gatchalian: Alisin ang Unprogrammed Appropriations sa 2026 Budget

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On the Non-Vetoing of the P450-B Extra Unprogrammed Appropriations in the 2024 Budget

If not clarified by the Supreme Court’s interpretation of Art VI, Sec 25 of the 1987 Constitution, what can prevent Congress from adding P1 trillion or even more in the next succeeding budget deliberations, so we borrow more to fund the excess in the Unprogrammed Fund under the NEP?

Needless to say, this is a very bad precedent, especially so that Congress has developed the new penchant for realigning the budget to and from the Unprogrammed Appropriations.

To illustrate my point: Under the 2022 GAA, Congress managed to realign to the Unprogrammed Appropriations under the Special Purpose Fund the amount of P100 billion; while under the 2023 GAA, they realigned a total of P219 billion to the Unprogrammed Appropriations.

Under the same scheme of realignments, mostly done in the bicameral conference committee level, they also realigned hundreds of billions of pesos from the Unprogrammed Appropriations to the regular budget to fund their so-called “pet projects.”

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