INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines–The Supreme Court (SC) said it turned down Malacañang’s offer to provide the high court P100 million of its pooled savings offer early this year.
Malacañang’s offer came through a letter from Budget Secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad dated Jan. 10, 2014.
In his letter, Abad denied the request of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to extend the validity of the P100 million allocation up to Dec. 31, 2014.
On Wednesday, President Benigno Aquino’s speech said Sereno requested for P100 million to be taken out from the funds of the Department of Justice for the construction of the Malabon Hall of Justice.
He said it can be considered a ‘cross-border’ act which the Supreme Court itself has declared illegal.
However, the January 21, 2014 resolution by the high court showed that there was already P100-million already under the DOJ- Justice System Infrastructure Program (Jusip). The validity of the fund, however, will expire on December 2013. Sereno’s request was for only one more year extension, not additional fund.
The high court withdrew the request upon the recommendation of the Halls of Justice Committee chaired by Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco.
Still, Abad, in his letter explained that the request for extension cannot be allowed as stated under the General Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2012 which provides that capital outlays shall be valid and obligation until Dec. 31, 2013.
“Secretary Abad, however, informed the Court of the availability of a portion of the pooled savings to augment the Judiciary’s capital outlay in the fiscal year 2013 budget and asked what the Court would like to do with the pooled savings that have been processed for release to the Judiciary,” the high court’s resolution stated.
Abad’s letter came at the time when the high court is hearing the petitions against the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). DAP funds came from pooled savings and unspent funds which were then allocated for priority projects.
“Wherefore…The Court…declines the offer contained in the January 10, 2014 letter of Secretary Florencio Abad to avail of a portion of the pooled savings,” the high court stated in its resolution.
In its July 1 DAP decision, the high court ruled that apart from barring cross-border transfer of funds from one branch of government to another, the Constitution also prohibits the “withdrawal of unobligated allotments from the implementing agencies, and the declaration of the withdrawn unobligated allotments and unreleased appropriations as savings prior to the end of the fiscal year and without complying with the statutory definition of savings contained in the General Appropriations Acts.”
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