3rd plea vs VP Sara’s P125M secret funds filed with SC

ANOTHER petition has been filed with the Supreme Court (SC) questioning the constitutionality of the P125 million contingency fund transferred in December 2022 from the Office of the President (OP) to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) to be used as confidential funds of Vice President Sara Duterte.

The Makabayan bloc also asked the High Court to order Duterte to return the amount to the National Treasury.

The petitioners include incumbent Makabayan lawmakers, and former party list representatives Neri Colmenares, Carlos Isagani Zarate, Ferdinand Gaite and Eufemia Cullamat.

Named respondents aside from Duterte were Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, Budget Secretary Aminah Pangandaman and Commission on Audit chairperson Gamaliel Cordoba.

The petition for certiorari was anchored on two constitutional grounds, namely the release by the OP of the P125 million has no legal basis because there was no congressional appropriation for confidential funds of the OVP in the 2022 General Appropriations Act (GAA), and the Executive branch is not authorized to pass its own budget outside of the appropriations law.

Petitioners said the transfer violated Section 1, Article VI of the Constitution, which declares that the legislative power is vested in Congress, not the executive branch.

“While it is true that the Chief Executive has some discretion and flexibility in the budget execution stage, this power must only be exercised within the bounds set by the Constitution and the appropriate laws, including the pertinent General Appropriations Act,” they said.

“Any release of confidential funds to an agency or instrumentality that does not comply with the letter and spirit of the relevant provisions of the Appropriations Act amounts to an overexertion of presidential powers during the budget execution phase,” they also argued.

The second ground is that the request, receipt, and use by the OVP of the said funds without congressional authorization also violated Section 29 (1), Article VI of the Constitution which states that “no money shall be paid out of the Treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law.”

“In other words, no confidential funds must be released to