By Filane Mikee Cervantes/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Tuesday said President Rodrigo Duterte’s veto of the PHP95.3 billion worth of items in the 2019 national budget has both legal and constitutional grounds.
In a statement, Drilon said the President’s action has legal basis in the case of Joker Arroyo vs. de Venecia (GR No. 127255, 14 August 1997), where the Supreme Court ruled that “the attestations by the Speaker of the House and the Senate President serve as a solemn assurance that the measure was indeed passed by Congress”.
Drilon noted Senate President Vicente Sotto’s qualified attestation of the Senate’s passage of the budget was his suggestion.
Sotto earlier signed the enrolled copy of the budget measure with “strong reservations” and transmitted it to the Palace for the President’s signature.
Sotto, in a letter to Duterte, said he found “unconstitutional” the billions worth of realignments made by the House of Representatives after the 2019 budget was already ratified by both chambers of Congress.
“The assurance given by Senate President Sotto, in this case, was qualified. The Senate President only attested to the approval of that portion of the bill not affected by the realignments,” Drilon said.
“Thus, the President’s line item veto is based on legal and constitutional grounds, and not because the President sided with the Senate,” he added.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the PHP95.3 billion vetoed items of appropriations under the 2019 national budget are “unconstitutional”.
Panelo was referring to, among others, the PHP75-billion last-minute insertions made by the House to the final version of the budget bill.
“Those are the so-called insertions/riders. They are not part of the program by the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways), hence it violates the Constitution,” said Panelo in a Palace briefing.
Citing the Supreme Court decision in 2013, he said “unprogrammed” funds violate the Constitution.
The Palace spokesperson, meanwhile, maintained that the President’s decision to veto provisions in the 2019 budget is a show of his strong stand against any form of corruption.
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