The Supreme Court has declared that the 2024 and 2025 General Appropriations Acts, along with several special provisions in the 2026 national budget—all passed under former House Speaker Martin Romualdez’s leadership—were unconstitutional because they increased the President’s recommended spending through prohibited lump-sum appropriations.
In a decision released on Oct. 20, the Supreme Court En Banc ruled that Congress violated constitutional limits when it increased appropriations beyond the amounts recommended by President Bongbong Marcos.
The Court identified a ₱449.5-billion increase in unprogrammed appropriations under the 2024 General Appropriations Act. The allocation rose from approximately ₱282 billion in the President’s proposal to ₱731.4 billion following congressional deliberations.
The increases emerged from the bicameral conference committee, which reconciled the House and Senate budget proposals. Romualdez was House Speaker when the controversial spending measures passed Congress.
The budgets had drawn widespread condemnation from political figures across party lines and opposing political camps, with many describing them as the most mangled and corruption-ridden national budgets in Philippine history. The controversy centered on massive congressional insertions, questionable spending priorities and the handling of billions of pesos in public funds.
The Court found that lawmakers transferred programs from regular budget allocations into unprogrammed appropriations, creating room for additional spending. The adjustments affected infrastructure, healthcare assistance, social welfare and other government programs.
For the 2025 budget, the Court also struck down a ₱17.99-billion increase in the Department of Public Works and Highways‘s Special Road Fund.
It likewise declared unconstitutional the ₱12.75-billion increase allocated to certain agencies’ Special Accounts in the General Fund in the 2026 budget, finding that the adjustment violated provisions of the Administrative Code that “prohibits increasing amounts in special provisions beyond those proposed by the president.”
Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, who penned the main decision, emphasized that public funds must remain subject to constitutional restrictions and legislative accountability.
Romualdez is detained in connection with a ₱7.44 billion plunder case involving projects financed under the GAAs from 2022 to 2025. He has been accused of links to a kickback scheme in Congress tied to flood control and other government infrastructure projects.
