Lagman: Congress not likely to overturn Aquino’s veto on 2011 budget

Even though he is against it, House minority leader Edcel Lagman admitted that Congress will most likely not overturn President Benigno Simeon Aquino III’s veto on some provisions of the 2011 national budget. In a press statement issued on Thursday, Lagman said “both the House of Representatives and the Senate do not have the will, courage and numbers to reject the President’s disapproval." Despite this, he still insisted that there was wisdom and legality to override the President’s veto on certain portions of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) or the law on the country's official budget. Through a veto (from the Latin word meaning "I forbid"), a president can override or use his authority to stop a law from being passed. On December 27, Aquino signed the P1.645-trillion budget for 2011 but vetoed at least 13 provisions in the GAA, including the use of savings from the conditional cash transfer program, which received a P21-billion appropriation. Lagman said it was a "grossly misplaced" decision to veto "Special Provision No. 3" in the GAA, specifying the use of the savings from the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program only for “basic education, maternal health and immunization." Malacañang, on the other hand, said "Special Provision No. 3" was a form of "congressional intrusion" on the President's authority to use the CCT savings at his discretion. Lagman cited Section 25 (5) of Article VI of the 1987 Constitution which reads: “No law shall be passed authorizing any transfer of appropriations; however, the President, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the heads of Constitutional Commissions may, by law, be authorized to augment any item in the general appropriations law for their respective offices from savings in other items of their respective appropriations." Lagman said Special Provision No. 3 was completely legal and consistent with the Constitution. The provision allows the augmentation of the budget for “basic education, maternal health and immunization" using CCT savings, as determined by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). “It is Congress which has the mandate under the Constitution to authorize the President to augment appropriations of executive offices from savings within the executive department," Lagman said. He added that "such congressional mandate includes the power to direct to what agencies the savings should be realigned." Lagman further said increasing the budget for education and health are relevant to the CCT because the Departments of Education (DepEd) and Health (DOH) are allied departments with the DSWD in the implementation of the program. Power not absolute Lagman said the power of the President to implement the budget is not absolute. Lagman also said the veto of the requirement for legislative consultation on lump sum appropriations was a misconstruction of the Executive’s authority to implement the GAA. He said the congressional power of appropriation does not end in the enactment of the GAA but extends to the implementation of the budget law as the oversight function is inherent to Congress. “The legislative oversight function is particularly critical with respect to lump appropriations in order to delimit the discretion of the Executive because the implementation of lump sums is fraught with possibilities of abuse and misuse," Lagman said. Debt ceiling Aquino also vetoed a provision requiring authority from Congress for borrowings over the debt ceiling of 55 percent of the latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Lagman said the veto on the debt ceiling was another instance of an undue attachment of the president to "executive prerogatives." He said Aquino ignored the principles of "shared fiscal discipline" and "check and balance" mandated by the Constitution. “Runaway borrowings will have to be contained because debt service is inflated and the delivery of social services imperiled," Lagman said. – VVP, GMANews.TV