MANILA — House Appropriations Committee Chairperson Rep. Elizaldy Co turned the tables on Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman on Wednesday after he challenged the constitutionality of excess unprogrammed funds in the 2024 budget before the Supreme Court.

Co noted that when Lagman was a member of the Bicameral Conference Committee in 2023, "he also approved unprogrammed funds of the same amount as 2024."

"Was it because he was recently excluded from the bicameral committee that he now claims unprogrammed funds are illegal? Lagman was also once chairman of the appropriations committee and a member of said panel for almost 15 years and yet not once has he ever complained about unprogrammed appropriations. Why complain now?" Co said in a statement.

"Perhaps the gentleman from the first district of Albay is becoming more forgetful," the Ako Bicol party-list representative added.

In response, Lagman said Co engages in personal attacks instead of squarely confronting the constitutional issues. He added that Co "miserably failed" to deny his allegations.

"I have not forgotten that the practice of increasing the unprogrammed appropriations was the then-prevailing errant interpretation and practice wherein the prohibition on increasing the President’s budget proposal was limited to the programmed appropriations," Lagman said.

"I have not forgotten to categorically mention this incorrect interpretation and practice in the petition. It is well-settled that irregular acts committed in the past cannot legitimize their continuation up to the present. What is wrong must be eventually junked," he added.

On Monday, Lagman challenged before the Supreme Court the constitutionality of the excess of P449.54-billion allocation in the unprogrammed appropriations, which he claimed was “clandestinely” embedded in the 2024 national budget.

Lagman sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) or a writ of preliminary injunction restraining the respondents from funding, releasing, and implementing the unprogrammed funds.

In a press release from his office, Lagman claimed that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his National Expenditure Program (NEP) proposed a ceiling of only P281.9 billion for unprogrammed appropriations which the Congress is prohibited from increasing under the constitution.

"The excess of P449.5-B over the P289.1-B proposed by the President for unprogrammed appropriations is an unconstitutional act of the Congress which is tainted with grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of congressional jurisdiction, and perforce must be nullified," the release said.

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