Vice President Sara Duterte said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. must be held accountable for passing a national budget she claimed clearly contradicts the National Expenditure Program (NEP), after the Supreme Court declared the 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) unconstitutional, invalidated the 2025 GAA, and struck down certain provisions of the 2026 national budget.
‘He must answer why he signed a budget that does not even align with his own administration’s proposal. The national budget belongs to the people; it is not a tool for politicking and the personal interests of those in power,’ Duterte said in a statement released on Wednesday.
In a decision issued on Tuesday, the SC declared 2024 and 2025 GAAs unconstitutional because Congress unlawfully increased spending limits beyond the President’s budget proposal, citing a P449.5 billion increase in 2024 unprogrammed funds and a P17.99 billion Special Road Fund increase in 2025, alongside specific 2026 budget provisions.
Duterte said that the SC has already defended the law.
‘Now it is time for Marcos and the members of Congress who violated the process and indulged in funds that should have gone toward improving the lives of Filipinos to be held accountable to the public,’ Duterte said, adding that the ruling upholds the Constitution and ‘ensures that the rule of law prevails, based on its decision.’
She also felt vindicated, saying that her warning in 2024 was right after all, claiming that the Bicameral Conference Committee is ‘no longer doing its job.’
‘Instead of reviewing and debating, it has become a mere stamping pad and rubber stamp for Malacañang’s wishes regarding the national budget,’ she said.