The allegedly unconstitutional P449.5 billion unprogrammed appropriations was retained in the P5.768 trillion national budget for 2024 that was recently signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

This was learned after Presidential Communications Secretary Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil revealed on Friday (December 22) that only two budget items have been excluded and vetoed by Marcos.

One of the vetoed items is the revolving fund of the Department of Justice which the president described as inappropriate since the proposed allocation will come from fees to be collected by the DOJ. Said fees are “clearly not from business-type activities”, he said.

The other rejected provision of the 2024 General Appropriations Act is the proposed allocation for the implementation of the National Government’s Career Executive Service Development Program (NGCESDP).

The chief executive explained that this item “does not related to any particular appropriation” in the 2024 GAA.

However, what was believed to be an unconstitutional budget item was approved by Marcos.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III assailed the inclusion of the P449.5 billion unprogrammed funds to be highly irregular for contradicting the Constitution.

He said the final version of GAB submitted by Congress increase the total amount of the proposed 23024 national budget to P6.498 trillion yet the Executive Department submitted only a P5.768-trillion for lawmakers to consider.

“Feeling executive branch na ang mga legislators po natin,” the opposition solon said, referring to the bicameral conference committee.

The bicameral conference panel allegedly inserted the P449.5 billion unprogrammed allocation as part of the approved 2024 General Appropriations Bill that it submitted to Malacanang.

“But, you know, disregarding the constitutional rule that we concur with the budget proposed by the President, we can reduce it but we cannot increase it,” he told an interview by CNN Philippines last week.