A PETITION seeking to declare the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), which contains the proposed P6.325-trillion budget for the year, unconstitutional was filed before the Supreme Court (SC).
The petition for certiorari and prohibition, which requests for the 2025 national budget to be declared as unconstitutional, was filed by former executive secretary and senatorial aspirant Vic Rodriguez, Davao City Third District Representative Isidro Ungab, Rogelio Mendoza, Benito Ching Jr., Redemberto Villanueva, Roseller dela Peña, Santos Catubay, and Dominic Solis.
Named as respondents were House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Senate President Francis Escudero, and Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.
Petitioners said Republic Act (RA) 12116 or the General Appropriations Act of Fiscal Year 2025 violated four provisions under the 1987 Constitutions:
Article II Section 15, on protecting and promoting the right to health, in relation to the Universal Health Care Act.
Article VI Section 25(1), which provides that Congress may not increase appropriations recommended by the President for government operations as specified in budget.
Article XIV Section 5(5), which provides that the State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education.
Article VI Section 27, on presentation of bills passed by Congress to the President.
The petitioners noted that removing PhilHealth's budget from the 2025 GAA would have "adverse effects" on the pursued system reforms under the Universal Health Care Act.
“Worse, PhilHealth will be in no position to provide enhanced health benefits in accordance with UHCA's mandate and thus, would be violative of the constitutional right to health of all Filipinos,” the petition stated.
“Clearly, the Bicameral Conference Committee committed grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction when it signed the committee report on the 2025 National Budget filled with blanks,” it added.
Earlier, former President Rodrigo Duterte and Ungab revealed discrepancies in the Bicameral Conference Committee report, particularly the blanks in sections related to the budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and unprogrammed appropriations including amounts reaching billions of pesos.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara has also expressed dismay over the P12-billion reduction for the Department of Education budget allocation for 2025. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)