2024 budget ‘bloated’ by P455B – senator

SENATE minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III yesterday said the proposed 2024 national budget may be questioned before the Supreme Court (SC) for being unconstitutional as it supposedly exceeds P5.768 trillion, which was the amount requested by Malacañang under its National Expenditures Program (NEP) for next year.

Pimentel said the actual total allocation in the 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) amounts to more than P6 trillion.

This, he explained, is because of the huge increase in unprogrammed appropriations that was approved by the bicameral conference committee which reconciled the differing versions of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Unprogrammed appropriations provide standby authority to the Executive to incur additional agency obligations for priority programs or projects when revenue sources exceed the revenue collections target, and when additional grants or foreign funds are generated.

Pimentel said that under the 2024 GAB, which was ratified by Congress last Monday, the final unprogrammed appropriations reached P731.4 billion, which he pointed out is bloated by P455 billion when compared to the P281.9 billion allocated in the NEP.

He said that the additional unprogrammed appropriations of P455 billion, when added to the P5.768 trillion national budget, will sum up to more than P6 trillion.

“Compliant ba ‘yan sa Constitution? Ang sabi ng Constitution sa atin (Is this compliant with the Constitution? The Constitution says that) Congress may approve the appropriations proposed by the President for the operations of government, but it cannot increase appropriations. Congress can maintain the appropriations or reduce the appropriations, but it cannot increase the appropriations,” Pimentel stressed.

Pimentel said this is the second time that the country will have a spending budget of more than P6 trillion. The first time, he said, is the budget for the current year.

“Ang problema sa unprogrammed, two years running ko nang napapansin, nag-bo-bloat ang unprogrammed appropriations (The problem with unprogrammed [funds] is that I have been noticing for two consecutive years that unprogrammed appropriations are bloated),” he said.

Pimentel