The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday, June 2, acknowledged the need to urgently resolve the petitions that challenged the constitutionality of the unprogrammed funds and special accounts in the 2024, 2025, and 2026 national budgets.

During the resumption of the oral arguments on Tuesday, June 2, former Senate president Franklin Drilon urged the SC to resolve the petitions immediately because the budget proposal for 2027 is expected to be submitted to Congress after July this year.

Acknowledging Drilon’s request, Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo told the parties in the four cases: “We’d also like to let you know that the Court is conscious of the timelines in the budget process.”

Drilon is one of the amici curiae (friends of the court) invited by the SC to help in resolving the issues raised in the petitions.

“We are making this manifestation to respectfully urge the Court to decide on this case as early as possible preferably by Congress because the decision of this Court will provide guidance not only to the government but to the public in general as to this anima of unprogrammed appropriations,” Drilon said.

He also reminded the SC of the current political turmoil arising from the alleged questionable insertions in the national budget.

“That is why it is very critical, Your Honors, that this Honorable Court provide Congress and the public in general as to the guidelines of what is constitutional and what can be done with the unprogrammed appropriations,” he added.

The oral arguments will resume on June 9 and the last legal debate has been scheduled for June 16.

Undergoing oral arguments are four consolidated petitions -- G.R. No. 271059, Rep.Edcel C. Lagman et al. vs Congress of the Philippines et al.; G.R. No. 271347, Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez vs Lucas P. Bersamin and Amenah F. Pangandaman; G.R. No. E-02472, Filipinos for Peace, Justice and Progress Movement, Inc. (FPJPM) vs House of Representatives et al.; and G.R. No. E-04036, Edgar R. Erice and Leila de Lima v. Senate of the Philippines et al.

The petitioners – legislators, taxpayers, and concerned citizens – asked the SC to nullify the adjustments made by Congress’ Bicameral Conference Committees that inflated the national budget for three consecutive years.

A total of P150.9 billion in unprogrammed appropriations (UA) was included in the P6.793 trillion national budget for 2026 under Republic Act No. 12314, the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA), that was signed into law by President Marcos last January 5.

Earlier, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) – as legal counsel of the respondents in the petitions – sought the dismissal of the consolidated petitions.

In one of its comments, the OSG told the SC: “Unprogrammed appropriations are equally vital as programmed appropriations. However, the reality is that the government’s resources are finite; it is unable to guarantee and fund all its intended expenditures within a fiscal year. Thus, the government is constrained to relegate some of the planned projects, activities, and programs as unprogrammed appropriations, which are dependent on additional funding from a contingent source.”