The Marcos administration's P5.768-trillion budget for fiscal year 2024 is constitutionally infirmed, independent opposition lawmaker Edcel Lagman said Tuesday.

Lagman claimed the infirmity arises from the handiwork of the congressional bicameral conference committee in including P449.5 billion in unprogrammed appropriations.

This, according to the veteran lawmaker, is notwithstanding that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. only recommended P281.9 billion for such a purpose in the 2024 National Expenditure Program.

"The President's utter failure to veto the excess items aggravates the constitutional defect," said Lagman, the president of the once-ruling Liberal Party.

The bicam's decision to augment the unprogrammed funds, according to Lagman, runs counter to Section 25 (1) of Article VI of the 1987 Constitution, mandating that "Congress may not increase the appropriations recommended by the President for the operation of the government as specified in the budget or the NEP."

"The prohibition on Congress from increasing the appropriations recommended by the President covers both the programmed appropriations, which have available budget sources, and the unprogrammed appropriations, which have only contingent budget sources limited to the (a) release of new loan proceeds for foreign assisted projects; (b) revenue collections from new tax laws; and (c) increase in non-tax revenue collections over the target," Lagman maintained.

This year's national spending program, the highest in history approved by Congress, is P500 billion higher than last year's P5.268 trillion. The budget measure was ratified by Congress just days before it went on a month-long Christmas break.

According to Lagman, the P5.768 trillion for programmed appropriations and P289.1 billion for unprogrammed appropriations, recommended by the executive branch and augmented by Congress, is a clear violation of the law.

"Verily, since the Constitution does not distinguish between the programmed appropriations and the unprogrammed appropriations with respect to the congressional ban, the ceiling of both cannot be exceeded by the Congress," he said.

Lagman said the unprogrammed appropriations "have become the sanctuary of partisan and pet projects where funding and releases for implementation would even antedate programmed appropriations."

The national budget for this year, signed into law by Marcos on 20 December, includes P200 million in capital outlay allotted for the upgrade of the aviation infrastructure of Borongan Airport.

It also augments the budget for bicycle lanes under the Active Transport and Safe Pathways Program to P1 billion from the initial P500 million recommended by the DBM.