271059/271347/E-02472/E-04036 Concurring Opinion: Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo — Official PDF

Concurring Opinion 20 G.R. Nos. 271059, 271347, E-02472, and E-04036 it works in my humble opinion, sir. In my humble submission, that is how it operates. In the same manner, the same question can be raised with the budget secretary, on the DPWH secretary. The authority to decide where the bridge should be situated is a policy issue and which Congress has also the right to participate. If you put a bridge from this point to another point, does that serve the economic interest? And does that serve progress? And congressman, sir, will argue that "I should know the situation on the ground, and as a matter of policy, it should be from point C to point D, instead offrom point A to point B."68 (Emphasis supplied) Truly, absolutely prohibiting Congress from making new PAPs or transferring P APs from Programmed to Unprogrammed Appropriations, and vice versa, will dilute Congress's power of the purse - "the very foundation of its institutional strength"69 - and will skew the balance of powe,r between the Executive and the Legislative. Allow me to illustrate my point through an example. Let us say the president decides to build a new National Museum, worth USD One Billion70 (around PHP 62.9 Billion),71 to showcase our country's heritage and history. Hence, they propose that the entire amount be included as an item under Programmed Appropriations. This projects forms part of the President's Budget eventually submitted to Congress. During the Budget Legislation Phase, would members of the House and/or the Senate, who are presumably aware of our country's healthcare situation,72 among others, prohibited from doing the following: 1. First, decide that this is too much money to be spent for a museum and that the money can be used for more impactful P APs, such as the construction of new public hospitals., However, Congress, recognizing that this National Museum is still in line with the President's Priority Plan, decides to either: 68 Id. at 126. 69 Araullo v. Aquino III, 737 Phil. 457,602 (2014) [Per J. Bersamin, En Banc]. 70 See Egypt's Grand Museum which allegedly cost around USD I Billion to construct - Rebecca Anne Proctor, Inside Egypt's Enigmatic $ I Billion Grand Museum, Artnet available at https://news.artnet.com/art-world/inside-grand-egyptian-museum-2658355 (last accessed September 15, 2026). 71 Based on the exchange rate as of September 15, 2026. See https:/lwww.bsp.gov.phlstatistics/external/day99 _data.aspx (last accessed September 15, 2026). 72 Note that in Pimentel v. House of Representatiws, G.R. Nos. 274778, 275405 & 276233, December 3, 2025 [Per J. Lazaro-Javier, En Banc] where the Court explicitly stated that rights, such as the right to health, "need resources.''