House of Representatives (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

More House members are insisting that the chamber’s realignment of P1.23 billion worth of confidential funds from the 2024 national budget--including those sought by Vice President Sara Duterte--was constitutional. 

Aklan 2nd district Rep. Teodorico Haresco Jr., Misamis Oriental 1st district Rep. Christian Unabia, and Davao del Sur lone district Rep. John Tracy Cagas are all of the opinion that the House's move with the confidential funds was above board. 

According to Haresco, the House of Representatives has the constitutional mandate to exercise the ‘power of the purse’ together with the Senate and decide on the use of confidential funds in response to public clamor. 

Haresco reckoned that the responsibility and authority to protect the country’s national security primarily belongs to our security forces like the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) and not to be burdened on civilian executive agencies. 

“Even in the past, the confidential funds of the executive branch of government have been meticulously and conscientiously decided by Congress. It is simply a matter of checks and balances indicative of a healthy democracy,” the economist-solon said. 

The P1.23 billion worth of confidential funds have been reallocated to security agencies in a bid to further protect national interests in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). 

Unabia said that the country’s precarious position in the WPS justifies the realignment of the controversial special lump sum funds. 

“I maintain my belief that the House of Representatives has done nothing wrong in realigning confidential funds in the 2024 national budget. It is the constitutional mandate of Congress to exercise the power of the purse. And boosting the budget of national security agencies is a responsible way of spending public funds,” Unabia said. 

“This is especially true in light of the country’s predicament in the WPS. We need to boost our capabilities in protecting our exclusive economic zone. Our fishermen are being kept from their livelihood and turned away in our own fishing grounds,” he added. 

For Cagas, there's nothing extraordinary about the realignment since Congress (House and the Senate) practically does it every year with the proposed budget. 

“There’s no question about it. The Congress, particularly the House, where the national budget bill originates, possesses that power. It is granted by the Constitution,” he said. 

“The limitation to that power is that the Congress, to use the language of the Constitution, ‘may not increase the appropriations recommended by the President for the operation of the government as specified in the budget’,” he said. 

Cagas further declared: “I am sure that we stand on solid constitutional ground in making adjustments in the budget. We are ready to face any challenge in the proper forum." 

Last week, former president Rodrigo Duterte assailed the House for stripping his daughter Vice President Duterte of her P650-million confidential funds under next year's national budget.