Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III said on Wednesday, Jan. 3 that he is targeting to file his petition before the Supreme Court (SC) on the unconstitutionality of the additional P450-billion unprogrammed funds in the 2024 national budget this week.

"The target is this week but syempre (of course) it depends on the lawyers’ readiness," Pimentel told reporters in an online interview.

The senator added that he's about to finish the case's outline. Pimentel had criticized the additional P450 billion in unprogrammed funds in the final version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), calling the 2024 budget "unconstitutional".

When asked about the dangers of allowing the "unconstitutional" budget to take effect, Pimentel said that this practice will be prone to abuse.

"Aabusuhin yung practice, ang masama ay unconstitutional pa yung practice na iyon (The practice will be abused, what's bad is that this practice is unconstitutional). So, it’s a nip in the bud. Ang masama rito sa practice na ito (What's about this practice), if there are funds available and there are important expenditures of the government, hindi ba ang mas karapat-dapat na gawin ay mag-request na lang ng supplemental budget (shouldn't the proper move is to request for a supplemental budget)? Parang na-circumvent din yung idea ng supplemental budget (It's like the idea of the supplemental budget was circumvented). The proper way, kung mayroong available na pera, the proper way to do it is to ask for a supplemental budget," he said.

More than the budget, Pimentel stated that it’s respecting the Constitution. He said that from his memory, this is the third year in a row that the unprogrammed funds is being abused. For 2022, Congress added P100 billion more than the President’s proposal. For 2023, he said that close to P300 billion was added which was around P290 billion.

Independent minority solon Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman also said in a statement that the recently enacted P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024 is constitutionally infirm and therefore must be challenged befor the SC.

Lagman said the 2024 GAA, which took effect on Monday, Jan. 1 "suffers a constitutional infirmity insofar as the bicameral conference committee inserted P449.5 billion in excess of the unprogrammed appropriations of P281.9 billion recommended by the President in the national budget or the National Expenditure Program (NEP)".

Pimentel disclosed that he is currently talking to a member of the House of Representatives (HOR) who wants to join him in filing a case but it’s not Lagman. But when he read Lagman's statement, he said that they may have a possible additional ally in the House.