Ombudsman to monitor budget, review SC ruling

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Ombudsman plans to form a group that will review the Supreme Court ruling that struck down the national budgets in 2024 and 2025 along with portions of the 2026 outlay as unconstitutional.

The ombudsman also vowed to look at alleged anomalies in the budget proposals. 

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said his agency “always (evaluates) decisions of the (SC) when they pinpoint culpability.”

Remulla made the remark after journalists asked if the ombudsman would study the SC ruling that invalidated the 2024 and 2025 national budgets, as well as specific provisions in this year’s national budget, primarily due to unlawful increases in unprogrammed appropriations (UA). 

“We have to act so we will study all of that and look at where the fault was, and how to make people explain their side or at least be made responsible for what they did,” he said at the SC yesterday.

The former congressman said after President Marcos finishes the proposed budget for the year, “the action goes on inside Congress, and it’s very hard to follow the action, especially for those who were scheming to add things and subtract things.”

One aspect of the budget that the ombudsman might look into is the “parked” allocations which, according to Remulla, was a “sign of bad faith, of playing with people’s money.” 

Remulla attended the signing of the memorandum of understanding between the Justice Sector Coordinating Council and the ombudsman yesterday. 

The ombudsman, outgoing Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo and representatives from the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior and Local Government signed the agreement.

Meanwhile, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong is calling for an ombudsman probe and a Commission on Audit (COA) review of the SC ruling and demanded accountability among officials behind the questioned appropriations.

Magalong urged the COA to scrutinize the increases and called on the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate and hold accountable any official found responsible for any wrongdoing. — Artemio Dumlao