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JUSTICE
Secretary Raul Gonzalez Monday defended the legality of
the P500 power subsidy granted by President Arroyo to
those consuming 100 kilowatt-hours or less a month,
saying it is part of the President’s discretionary
powers.
In an
interview, Gonzalez told reporters that under the
Constitution, the President is allowed to transfer funds
from the savings of the government “for public
interest.”
The
justice chief said under Section 25, paragraph 5,
Article VI of the Constitution, the President, the
Senate President, the House Speaker, the Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court and the heads of Constitutional
Commission “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.”
A
similar provision is found, according to Gonzalez, in
Section 59 of Republic Act 9498, or the General
Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2008, which specifically
authorized the use of savings.
“The
provisions clearly bestow upon the President the power
to release public funds from the savings of the Treasury
to finance the P2-billion power subsidy. The said
subsidy clearly falls within the ambit of the GAA,
considering that it is covered by the Priority
Development Assistance Fund; in particular, the Specific
Programs and Projects, to address the propoor programs
of the government,” the justice secretary said.
Gonzalez
made the statement in response to questions over the
legality of the power subsidy raised by former national
treasurer Leonor Briones and Senate Minority Leader
Aquilino Pimentel Jr.
Briones
branded the P2-billion subsidy as illegal for lack of an
enabling law. Pimentel shared Briones’s views, saying
that although the power subsidy’s intention is good, it
does not exempt the President from the constitutional
rule that all public expenditures should have prior
approval of Congress.
The DOJ
chief, however, noted the Supreme Court in the case of
Demetria v. Alba also upheld the President’s
discretionary power over the use of government savings.
In the
said case, the High Court said: “There should be no
question, therefore, the statutory authority has, in
fact, deemed granted. And once given, the heads of the
different branches of the government and those of the
constitutional commissions are afforded considerable
flexibility in the use of public funds and resources.”
“Pursuant to the above-pronouncement of the Supreme
Court relative to the validity of the power augmentation
from savings, we believe that the power subsidies may be
validly authorized by the President,” Gonzalez said.
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