The decision of House lawmakers not to subject to scrutiny the proposed 2027 budget of the Office of the President (OP) may have violated the checks and balances enshrined in the 1987 Constitution, according to a budget watchdog.
On Tuesday, the House appropriations committee voted 37-5 to swiftly end debate on the P10.1-billion proposed budget of the OP, citing parliamentary courtesy. The 2027 budget is 63.9-percent lower than this year’s P28.1 billion.
‘The traditional practice of ‘courtesy’ to executive agencies afforded to the President … violates the checks and balances designed by the Constitution,’ Kenneth Abante, coconvener of watchdog People’s Budget Coalition, told the Inquirer in a text message.
He described the practice as ‘worrying.’
‘There are also red flags in the Office of the President’s budget that need to be scrutinized. At the very least, it should be debated so it can be discussed,’ Abante said. ‘After all, it is still the people’s money being used, and it deserves the same scrutiny.’
Some programs flagged by budget watchdogs include confidential and intelligence funds allotted to the OP and funding for the government’s anticommunist task force, alongside its direct oversight authority over a support fund for local units, according to Tim Salomon of the Caucus of Development Non-Government Organizations Network.
Lawmakers have traditionally refrained from scrutinizing the OP’s budget, invoking the long-standing parliamentary courtesy extended to a sitting President.
Opposition lawmakers, however, protested the House appropriation committee’s move.
‘Public funds are not personally owned by Malacañang and we do not want to continue the broken tradition of extending parliamentary courtesy [to] the Office of the President,’ Kabataan Rep. Renee Co told lawmakers in a manifestation after she voted against terminating the OP’s budget hearing.
‘The power of the purse is held by the legislature … and it should not be surrendered to the executive,’ Co said.
Secret funds
Deputy Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio also questioned why half of the President’s proposed budget next year falls under secret funds, stressing that transparency should be applied across all agencies.
Of the P10.1 billion, around P4.56 billion is earmarked for spending beyond traditional scrutiny.
Confidential and intelligence funds finance surveillance and intelligence information gathering activities, according to a 2015 joint circular between the Commission on Audit (COA) and several agencies.
Tinio said the OP should explain its allotments meant for secret expenses, especially amid the ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, who is accused of misusing confidential funds.
‘If [Duterte’s] P612.5 million in confidential funds is under scrutiny … why is the Office of the President not explaining why its confidential and intelligence funds are that big?’ he asked, adding: ‘We need a fair application of the principle of transparency.’
Executive Secretary Ralph Recto, however, said that President Marcos has the right to hold secret funds as the nation’s chief executive.
He also noted that the COA had rendered an unmodified opinion on OP finances, which he described as ‘the highest opinion ever for all government agencies.’
‘The President is the chief executive officer. The President is the head of state, so his first job is to ensure law and order and that is where confidential funds are being used,’ Recto told reporters.