A PETITION for certiorari seeking to declare the transfer of P125 million by the Office of the President to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) unconstitutional was filed before the Supreme Court.
The petition, filed by a group of lawyers, constitutional experts and economists, also seeks to order the OVP to return the funds to the government treasury.
The petitioners include former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Augusto Lagman, former spokesperson of ex-Vice President Leni Robredo, lawyer Barry Gutierrez, Constitution framer Christian Monsod, former Department of Finance undersecretary Maria Cielo Magno, Chairperson of the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) Imelda Nicolas, Katrina Monsod, Ray Paolo Santiago, Honorio Poblador III, Vicente Romano III, Rex Drilon, and Miguel Jugo.
The OVP, represented by Vice President Sara Duterte; the Office of the Executive Secretary, represented by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin; and the Department of Budget and Management, represented by Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman were listed as respondents.
The P125 million, which was utilized by the OVP as confidential funds, is part of the P221.4 million released by the Office of the President (OP), under its contingent fund, to the agency on December 13, 2022.
Based on the data from the Commission of Audit, the OVP spent the funds in a span of just 11 days.
The OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd), which are both under Duterte, were in hot water over requests for confidential and intelligence funds despite being a civilian government agency.
For 2024, the OVP and DepEd were seeking a combined P650 million for confidential funds.
The House of Representatives earlier stripped the DepEd and OVP of their confidential funds and reallocated the budget to government agencies in charge of securing the country’s territory at the West Philippine Sea amid the continuous harassment of China. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)