Marcos vetoes 2 provisions in 2024 nat'l budget law

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has vetoed two sections in the 2024 General Appropriations Act, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said on Friday.

In a statement, the PCO said Marcos did not approve the budgetary item for the Department of Justice's (DOJ) revolving fund and the item pertaining to the implementation of the National Government's Career Executive Service Development Program (NGCESDP).

“In accordance with my constitutional mandate to ensure that laws are faithfully executed, I am obliged to veto Department of Justice (DOJ)-Office of the Secretary (OSEC), Special Provision No. 1, ‘DOJ Revolving Fund,’ Volume I-A, page 1119, inasmuch as there is no law which authorizes the DOJ to establish a revolving fund for the purpose indicated therein,” said Marcos in his letter to Speaker Martin Romualdez dated December 20.

“It may be emphasized that the service fees sought to be charged and collected are to be imposed upon complaints and affidavits filed with the National Prosecution Service, and petitions for review filed before the DOJ, when, in fact, such pleadings are filed with the said agencies by virtue of their jurisdiction vested by law," Marcos added.

Marcos said the charges are clearly not from business-type activities within the contemplation of the General Provision on Revolving Funds in the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

The vetoed provision permits the constitution of a revolving funds from receipts derived from business-type activities of agencies to be utilized for the operational expenses of the same activities.

Marcos also cited the Supreme Court ruling that declared that "'inappropriate provisions' are unconstitutional provisions and provisions which are intended to amend other laws, 'because clearly these kind[s] of laws have no place in an appropriations bill.”

For the president, these are matters of general legislation more appropriately dealt with in separate enactments.

Apart from the provision on DOJ's  revolving fund, Marcos also vetoed Section 38 under the General Provisions for the NGCESDP as it "does not relate to any particular appropriation" in the 2024 GAA.

Marcos noted that Presidential Decree No. 336 had already delineated the functions of the Career Executive Service Board as the body of the Career Executive Service, and the Development Academy of the Philippines is tasked to prepare a CES program appropriate and necessary for the organization and operation of the CES, and in consultation with the CESB, initiate and continue to implement the said program.

The 2024 GAA, which contains the P5.768-trillion national budget for next year, was signed and approved by Marcos last Wednesday. —Hana Bordey/KBK, GMA Integrated News