3 weeks ago
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Workers do renovation works around the House of Representatives within the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City on July 3, 2024.
STAR / Miguel De Guzman
MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives will comply with the order of the Supreme Court (SC) for a copy of the enrolled bill containing the 2025 national budget and a copy of this year’s budget program itself.
This was according to House Assistant Majority Leaders Jude Acidre of Tingog party-list and Jil Bongalon of Ako Bicol party-list, who expressed confidence that the high court would not find any blanks in those copies, contrary to critics of the budget approval process.
The SC made the request in preparation for a preliminary conference on the case on Feb. 28. It set oral arguments for April 1 in Baguio City.
“I stand by the regularity of the 2025 GAA (General Appropriations Act). It is above board. In fact, we welcome this initiative on the part of the Supreme Court to really require the copy of the enrolled bill,” Acidre told reporters.
“At least for now, we can establish the enrolled bill doctrine, which is well-respected in jurisprudence, which will be the basis for what were written in the enrolled bill, establishing the regularity of the procedure by which the law was enacted,” he said.
“But again, we are confident that even if we submit or send the original copies of the General Appropriations Act of 2025, including the encoded bill to the Supreme Court, nothing in those documents, we can see any blank items especially the amounts that are being questioned,” Bongalon, for his part, said.
“It is better that the Supreme Court justices themselves would see that there were no blanks as alleged by the petitioners in that particular case that there were blanks to be filled out. So nothing in those documents that there are blank items in the enrolled bill, also in the General Appropriations Act,” he added.
Bongalon said that during a meeting of the House committee on appropriations, of which he is a vice chairman, some reporters asked to see a copy of the enrolled bill to check if it contained blank spaces intended for appropriations. He said the documents showed no blank spaces.
“That is why we are confident that the budget for 2025 is valid, lawful and binding,” Bongalon said.
Asked if the enrolled bill contained any signature, Bongalon said: “There was none because that was the final copy before we transmitted it to the Office of the President for his review, for his action.”
“So, it does not have signature. As far as I’m concerned, what you see in the archive has no signature,” he said.
On the complaint of SC petitioners that they could not obtain a copy of the bill from the House, Bongalon said they have to formally request for one.
“It has to follow the rules. They have to make it official if someone requests for it. The archives is open to the public, so they can always make requests,” he added.
Acidre questioned the inclusion of Speaker Martin Romualdez in the list of respondents in the SC case. Acidre said the complaint was really intended to divert attention away from the impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte.
