VICE President Sara Duterte has urged the Supreme Court (SC) to junk the petitions against the release of P125 million confidential funds by the Office of the President (OP) to the Office of the Vice President (OVP).
In a consolidated comment, Duterte, through her lawyers led by former solicitor general Estelito Mendoza, said there had been no “actual case or controversy” in the petitions seeking to declare the transfer of the funds unconstitutional.
They noted that the petitions are mere apprehension and speculation about contingent funds or confidential funds, “which does not constitute a justiciable controversy.”
“The mandate of the Honorable Court does not include the duty to answer all of life’s questions. No question, no matter how interesting or compelling, can be answered by this Court if it cannot be shown that there is an ‘actual and antagonistic assertion of rights by one party against the other in a controversy wherein judicial intervention is unavoidable’,” it read.
“None of the petitions present an ‘actual case or controversy’ and none of the petitioners alleged a ‘legally demandable and enforceable right,’ which calls for the exercise of ‘Judicial Power.’ The petitions are mere apprehension and speculation about contingent funds or confidential funds, which does not constitute a justiciable controversy,” it added.
Mendoza said the Court’s power is not unbridled authority to just review any claim of constitutional violation or grave abuse of discretion.
“It is important to state that courts do not sit to adjudicate mere academic questions to satisfy scholarly interest therein, however intellectually solid the problem may be,” it added.
On November 7, 2023, a group of lawyers, constitutional experts and economists filed a petition for certiorari seeking to declare the transfer of P125 million by the OP to the OVP unconstitutional.
It also seeks to order the OVP to return the funds to the government treasury.
It was followed by another similar petition filed by the Makabayan bloc from the House of Representatives.
Another group of petitioners also asked the SC to declare null and void the order and circular that covers the disbursement of confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) in general.
The P125 million, which was utilized by the OVP as confidential funds, is part of the P221.4 million released by the OP, under its contingent fund, to the agency on December 13, 2022.
The funds were spent in just a span of 11 days, raising eyebrows among lawmakers.
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel earlier noted that confidential funds are not in the line budgeting of the OVP in 2022.
For 2023, the House of Representatives did not allocate confidential funds to the OVP or the DepEd, which are both under Duterte.
For the Fiscal Year 2024, the OVP and DepEd sought for the allocation of P650 million CIF but it was rejected. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)