‘ITO ANG MASAKLAP!’: LEGAL, ECONOMIC EXPERTS: VP SARA MUST RETURN THE P125-MILLION CONFIDENTIAL FUNDS SPENT IN ONLY 11 DAYS!

By Junex Doronio

STRESSING THAT IT’S ONLY CONGRESS that has the power of the purse, so to speak, a group of legal and economic experts that includes former Finance Undersecretary Cielo Magno and 1987 Constitution framer Christian Monsod filed on Tuesday a petition before the Supreme Court to declare as “unconstitutional” Vice President Sara Duterte’s P125-million confidential funds, and asked to “return the money to the government’s treasury.”

The petitioners argued that even if the Office of the President (OP) approved the transfer, and the funds were released by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the transfer of funds from the national budget to the OVP tantamounts to an exercise of legislative power.

“Verily, the appropriation done by the DBM is a clear usurpation of the legislative power of the Congress of the Philippines to create and fund an item that has not been done so by the Congress itself,” the petitioners maintained.

Their petition before the SC is for certiorari, or one that questions the grave abuse of discretion by a government agency or official.

Ironically, it was administration ally Marikina City Rep. Stella Quimbo who had exposed that the OVP spent the P125-million confidential funds in just 11 days in 2022.

The public uproar over the issue prompted the House of Representatives led by Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez to strip the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd) that VP Sara Duterte heads as its department secretary the P650-million total of confidential funds for 2024.

Crossing party lines, the congressmen decided to realign the confidential funds to the agencies tasked to safeguard the country’s security and sovereignty in the face of Chinese incursions in the West Philippine Sea.

“It is most respectfully prayed that this Honorable Court declare the transfer of the amount of P125 million to the Office of the Vice President as unconstitutional and that the Office of the Vice President be ordered to return the money to the government’s treasury,” the petitioners urged the SC.

In their petition, they also pointed out that “Clearly, the transfer from the Contingency Fund of the Office of the President to an inexistent ‘Confidential Fund’ is invalid, much not having a valid purpose for the said unlawful transfer.”

(ai/mnm)