ENBANC
G.R. No. 208566: Greco Antonious Beda B. Belgica, et al. v. Honorable Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa, Jr., et al.; G.R. No. 208493: Social Justice Society (SJS) President Samson S. Alcantara v. Senate President Franklin M. Drilon and Speaker of the House Feliciano S. Belmonte, Jr.; and G.R. No 209251: Pedrito M. Nepomuceno v. President Benigno S. Aquino III and Secretary Florencio Abad of the Department of Budget and Management.
Promulgated: NOVEMBER 19, 2013
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CONCURRING OPINION
CARPIO,J.:
This is again another time in our nation's history when this Court is called upon to resolve a grave national crisis. The corruption in the pork barrel system, as starkly documented in the Commission on Audit Report on the 2007-2009 Priority Development Assistance Fund, 1 has shown that there is something terribly wrong in the appropriation and expenditure of public funds. Taxes from the hard-earned wages of working class Filipinos are brazenly looted in the implementation of the armual appropriation laws. The Filipino people are in despair, groping for a way to end the pork-barrel system. The present petitions test the limits of our Constitution - whether this grave national crisis can be resolved within, or outside, the present Constitution. For resolution in the present cases are the following threshold issues: 1. Whether Article XLIV of Republic Act No. 10352 or the 2013 General Appropriations Act (GAA), on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), violates the principle of separation of powers;
Special Audits Office Report No. 2012-03, entitled Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and Various Infrastructures including Local Projects (VILP), pttp://coa.gov.ph/GWSPA/2012/SAO Report2012-03 PDAEpdf
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