DBM: Proposed budget does not mean cash is available
‘Because in government budgeting, a big number should always come with an equally big responsibility to explain where it comes from, where it goes, and what…
· 2 MIN READ
Topic
Unprogrammed appropriations and government fund releases
Latest Daily Tribune news and analysis on Unprogrammed appropriations and government fund releases.
Where’s the master plan?
A master plan that addresses only rainfall and ignores garbage, housing and encroachment is not a comprehensive program that would respond to the worsening…
· 2 MIN READ
Tipping point
Each week the Court stays silent is a week the UA hardens into place, unquestioned, on its way to becoming law.
· 3 MIN READ
No other way but slay UA
The Supreme Court killed the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the old pork barrel, in 2013.
· 3 MIN READ
Grand theft season
The spending plan needed to put on a show because the flood control scandal blew the lid off a practice that had become normal: using the UA as a side door for…
· 2 MIN READ
House vows safeguards on P112B unprogrammed funds in 2027 budget
The House vows to retain safeguards on unprogrammed appropriations as it reviews the P111.984 billion in standby funds proposed under the 2027 national budget.
· 2 MIN READ
Vanishing holy grail
Either the paperwork behind a P450-billion swing in the budget never existed or it exists and Congress has been withholding it from the Court reviewing its…
· 2 MIN READ
High Court orders final briefs in budget row
The Supreme Court concluded oral arguments on petitions challenging the constitutionality of the 2024–2026 national budgets, directing Congress, the DBM, and…
· 2 MIN READ
SC Justice Villanueva narrows issues in 2024 unprogrammed appropriations
Supreme Court Associate Justice Raul Villanueva clarifies that petitions against the 2024 General Appropriations Act target only the sharp increase in…
· 1 MIN READ
Time’s up
Among the issues the SC is asked to resolve is the nature of Unprogrammed Appropriations and how far Congress and the executive can stretch it.
· 2 MIN READ
Pork over progress
Without congressional authorization on the funds, even fully disbursed foreign loans sit inert.e
· 2 MIN READ
SC requests House, Senate to explain P500-B bicam budget changes
The Supreme Court has ordered the House of Representatives and the Senate to submit records explaining P400-B to P500-B in bicameral budget changes for the…
· 4 MIN READ
Phantom budget, ghost projects
Counsel for the petitioners observed that ‘UAs ballooned to a very high amount compared with the years before 2024,’ revealing a transformation in how…
· 2 MIN READ
SC probes claims about ‘pork barrel’
The Supreme Court has intensified scrutiny of the government’s Unprogrammed Appropriations system, with legal experts, economists, and former officials…
· 3 MIN READ
UA, recycled pork
When wisdom is paid only lip service while the substance of a decision is demonstrably unwise, it ceases to be wisdom at all.
· 3 MIN READ
