Sotto: SC can cure 2025 budget without declaring GAA unconstitutional
Former Senate President Vicente Sotto III. Senate PRIB photo
MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) could cure the allegedly unconstitutional provisions in the 2025 national budget without declaring the entire General Appropriations Act (GAA) as illegal, former Senate President Vicente Sotto III said on Wednesday.
At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum, Sotto reminded the public that the SC can declare parts of a law as unconstitutional without affecting other provisions, which happened several times, including to his pet measure, Republic Act No. 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Sotto said the SC declared unconstitutional two provisions of R.A. No. 9165 that sought to enforce mandatory drug testing in schools, workplaces, and for elective post candidates without scrapping the entire law, which can also happen to the 2025 GAA or R.A. No. 12116.
“Someone filed a petition before the SC seeking to declare unconstitutional R.A. No. 9165. The SC declared as unconstitutional two provisions only, which were the mandatory drug testing for schools and in workplaces, and the proposed mandatory drug testing for candidates because the Constitution states candidates must be able to read and write only,” he explained in Filipino.
Sotto said he agrees with what the SC did to R.A. No. 9165, and he believes the high tribunal would not go as far as declaring the entire 2025 GAA unconstitutional
Article continues after this advertisement“I have learned a lot from these experiences, that’s why I know what might happen,” he said in Filipino.
Article continues after this advertisement“They need not declare the budget as unconstitutional, the whole budget. No, I don’t think they will,” he added.
After the budget bill was signed into law by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., several individuals, including former senator Panfilo Lacson, raised concerns that the GAA supposedly did not prioritize the education sector, contrary to the requirement set by the 1987 Constitution.
Under Paragraph 5 of Article XIV, Section 5 of the Constitution, the government is mandated to “assign the highest budgetary priority to education.”
However, Lacson and the Makabayan bloc at the House of Representatives pointed out that more funds were allocated to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
READ: Education not prioritized in 2025 budget – Lacson, Makabayan bloc
Lacson, who was also present during the forum, warned that the process of curing the budget would be a tedious one.
Sotto, on the other hand, noted that the SC cannot amend the GAA by realigning items, which means that P288 billion worth of DPWH allocations might be sent back to the treasury, just so the education sector would have a higher allocation under the 2025 GAA.
“It will be a very tedious ruling. How would you put back, correct the lower budget for the education sector compared to public works? That’s a lot of items, P288 billion worth of PPAs, projects, programs, activities. That’s big, P288 billion, and you would put that back to where it came from just so the DPWH budget goes down and the education sector gets prioritized?” he said in Filipino.
“I think they can no longer put that back. The Supreme Court has no power to amend the GAA. What they can do is declare these unconstitutional, and what would happen is they would remove that, let’s say, the P288 [billion] mentioned by Senator Lacson … They will declare that unconstitutional and after you remove that, the DPWH budget would be lower compared to the education sector’s allocation.)
On December 12, 2024, Makabayan bloc member and ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro called out the bicameral conference committee for approving a P12-billion cut in the Department of Education’s (DepEd) proposed 2025 budget. It will hit the agency’s computerization program
Lawmakers from the House Majority bloc, however, defended the DepEd budget cuts, with Zambales 1st District Rep. Jefferson Khonghun saying that the DepEd should first show that it can efficiently use its funds before Congress makes a higher allocation.
Khonghun also disputed allegations that the DPWH had a higher budget, noting that the bicam allocated a total of P1.055 trillion to the education sector.
Khonghun also noted that while the DPWH has P1.235 trillion, P82.08 billion of its funds are convergence projects, which means that while these are infrastructure programs, it is intended for the projects of other departments like DepEd — classrooms and other facilities — and the Department of Health.
This would leave DPWH with P1.033 trillion, slightly lower than the allocation for the entire education sector.
READ: Education budget for 2025 still higher than DPWH fund – lawmaker
