🔴LIVE NOW:Supreme Court Justice Questions Marcos Admin Senate and Congress in Plenary

The Supreme Court on Tuesday subjected the government's unprogrammed appropriations system to intense scrutiny, with several justices and experts questioning whether the mechanism has evolved into a modern-day pork barrel that allows Congress to create billions of pesos in spending outside the President's proposed budget.During the continuation of oral arguments on consolidated petitions challenging provisions of the 2024 and 2025 General Appropriations Acts (GAA), Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier pressed petitioners, government lawyers and amici curiae on whether the controversial funding mechanism complies with constitutional limits on Congress' power over appropriations.The petitions filed by the late Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, former Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, Filipinos for Peace, Justice and Progress Movement Inc., and Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice seek to nullify portions of the GAA relating to unprogrammed appropriations.One of the sharpest exchanges came when Lazaro-Javier challenged the Lagman camp to support its allegation that Congress transfers items from programmed appropriations into unprogrammed appropriations to accommodate replacement projects assured of funding.