Solicitor General: PH Congress, Executive branch should be allowed to 'self-correct' budget issues

The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) will ask the Supreme Court (SC) to review parts of its ruling on the 2024, 2025, and 2026 national budgets, arguing that Congress and the executive should be allowed to correct budget issues within their constitutional powers.

At a Palace briefing Thursday, Solicitor General Darlene Marie Berberabe said the OSG respects the Court’s ruling that unprogrammed appropriations are not unconstitutional per se but wants clarification on safeguards affecting the implementation of the 2026 budget.

The OSG seeks to clarify which safeguards the Constitution requires and which should be left to Congress and the executive, which have separate powers to enact and implement the national budget.

“Ang amin lamang pong gustong idiin at hilingin na repasuhin nila baka po may mga guardrails na dapat ay ipaubaya na lamang doon sa dalawang branches, which are the political branches (What we want to emphasize and ask the Court to review is whether some safeguards should instead be left to the two political branches),” Berberabe said.

She cited changes already made by Congress and the executive to address budget provisions questioned by the Court, including revisions to lump-sum appropriations and the removal of certain provisions from the 2026 budget.

These measures, she said, showed that the political branches could correct budget issues themselves.

“Kaya po iyon iyong sinasabi namin na tutal sa kanila ibinigay ng Konstitusyon iyong kapangyarihan, hayaan mo silang mag-self-correct (That is what we will raise: because the Constitution has given them the power of the purse, they should be allowed to self-correct),” she said.

Berberabe added that they will also look into possible "judicial overreach" in challenging the high court's decision.

The Supreme Court recently declared the unprogrammed funds in the 2024 and 2025 national budgets unconstitutional over specific changes to appropriations and struck down provisions governing unprogrammed appropriations in the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

The Court also set conditions for releasing unprogrammed appropriations, including requiring excess revenue collections to be measured against overall revenue targets.

Berberabe said the OSG was studying the justices’ separate opinions before seeking clarification and review of the ruling.

For the 2027 budget, she said, the executive’s proposal significantly reduces unprogrammed appropriations.

Unprogrammed appropriations are standby funds that may be released only when specified funding conditions are met, unlike programmed appropriations, which have identified funding sources and are intended for government programs and projects.

-Philippine News Agency