Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday said the Supreme Court’s ruling declaring certain provisions of previous national budgets unconstitutional comes at an opportune time as the Senate scrutinizes questionable allocations in the House-approved 2027 spending bill.

“One good thing about the Supreme Court ruling is its timing. It couldn’t have come at a better time when the House version of the 2027 General Appropriations Bill is undergoing scrutiny by the Senate,” Lacson said in a statement.

He earlier warned that the Senate could restore hundreds of billions of pesos in allocations reduced or realigned by the House, including funding for foreign-assisted projects and additional flood control expenditures.

Lacson said the review could trigger more “iyakan” (crying) among House members as senators examine questionable budget adjustments.

In its 121-page decision, the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional certain provisions of the 2024 and 2025 national budgets, as well as key unprogrammed appropriations in the 2026 budget.

The Court found that Congress committed grave abuse of discretion when it increased the executive branch’s proposed unprogrammed appropriations for 2024 from PHP281.9 billion to PHP731.4 billion, or by PHP449.5 billion.

It emphasized that Congress cannot increase the President’s total recommended appropriations, covering both programmed and unprogrammed expenditures.

Lacson said the ruling could prevent further disbursements under invalidated provisions without necessarily reversing expenditures already made.

“Those that remain unspent may not be disbursed anymore; those already spent may not be invalidated,” he said.

He also clarified that he was not a senator when Congress approved the 2024 and 2025 budgets.

Lacson compared the controversy with the Disbursement Acceleration Program, portions of which were previously declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, underscoring the need for Congress to observe constitutional spending limits in crafting the 2027 budget. (PNA)