MANILA, Philippines — The Senate will eliminate lump-sum funds in the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget for 2027 and ensure that unprogrammed appropriations comply with Supreme Court restrictions, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said.
Gatchalian said the Senate will align the proposed budget with the high court’s ruling declaring the 2024 and 2025 national budget laws unconstitutional over congressional increases in appropriations and invalidating provisions governing unprogrammed appropriations in the 2026 budget.
“The bottom line is that the Supreme Court said appropriations cannot exceed the budget proposed by the president,” the senator said in an interview with DZBB radio on Sunday.
“For 2027, we will ensure that there are no lump-sum funds because they are unconstitutional,” he added.
The high tribunal however clarified that unprogrammed appropriations are not inherently unconstitutional. These are standby funds that may be released only when specified funding conditions are met.
Gatchalian said the Senate will retain unprogrammed appropriations in the 2027 budget, provided these comply with the court’s requirements.
“There will still be unprogrammed appropriations. The Supreme Court did not say these are prohibited or unconstitutional. It merely set parameters, which we will follow,” he said.
He estimated that unprogrammed appropriations accounted for about 2 percent to 5 percent of the national budget.
During a Senate Committee on Finance hearing on Oct. 22, Budget Secretary Kim Robert De Leon said the provisions struck down by the court were no longer included in the proposed 2027 budget.
