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G.R. No. 208566 November 19, 2013

GRECO ANTONIOUS BEDA B. BELGICA JOSE M. VILLEGAS JR. JOSE L. GONZALEZ REUBEN M. ABANTE
and QUINTIN PAREDES SAN DIEGO, Petitioners,
vs.
HONORABLE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY PAQUITO N. OCHOA JR. SECRETARY OF BUDGET AND
MANAGEMENT FLORENCIO B. ABAD, NATIONAL TREASURER ROSALIA V. DE LEON SENATE OF THE
PHILIPPINES represented by FRANKLIN M. DRILON m his capacity as SENATE PRESIDENT and HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES represented by FELICIANO S. BELMONTE, JR. in his capacity as SPEAKER OF THE
HOUSE, Respondents.

Facts:

This case is consolidated with G.R. No. 208493 and G.R. No. 209251.

Pork Barrel Scam Controversy

Ever since, the pork barrel system has been besieged by allegations of corruption. In July 2013, six whistle blowers,
headed by Benhur Luy, exposed that for the last decade, the corruption in the pork barrel system had been facilitated
by Janet Lim Napoles. Napoles had been helping lawmakers in funneling their pork barrel funds into about 20 bogus
NGO’s (non-government organizations) which would make it appear that government funds are being used in legit
existing projects but are in fact going to “ghost” projects. An audit was then conducted by the Commission on Audit
and the results thereof concurred with the exposes of Luy et al. Motivated by the foregoing, Greco Belgica and several
others, filed various petitions before the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of the pork barrel system.

The so-called pork barrel system has been around in the Philippines since about 1922. Pork Barrel is commonly
known as the lump-sum, discretionary funds of the members of the Congress. It underwent several legal designations
from “Congressional Pork Barrel” to the latest “Priority Development Assistance Fund” or PDAF. The allocation for the
pork barrel is integrated in the annual General Appropriations Act (GAA). The PDAF articles in the GAA do provide for
realignment of funds whereby certain cabinet members may request for the realignment of funds into their department
provided that the request for realignment is approved or concurred by the legislator concerned.

Presidential Pork Barrel: The president does have his own source of fund albeit not included in the GAA. The so-
called presidential pork barrel comes from two sources:

(a) the Malampaya Funds, from the Malampaya Gas Project – this has been around since 1976, and

(b) the Presidential Social Fund which is derived from the earnings of PAGCOR – this has been around since
about 1983.

Issue:

Whether or not the 2013 PDAF Article and all other Congressional Pork Barrel laws are unconstitutional for violating
the constitutional provisions of non-delegability of legislative power, among others.

Ruling:

Yes, the congressional pork barrel system is unconstitutional. As a rule, the Constitution vests legislative power in
Congress alone. The Constitution does grant the people legislative power but only insofar as the processes of
referendum and initiative are concerned. That being, legislative power cannot be delegated by Congress for it cannot
delegate further that which was delegated to it by the Constitution. Exceptions to the rule are: (i) delegated legislative
power to local government units but this shall involve purely local matters; (ii) authority of the President to, by law,
exercise powers necessary and proper to carry out a declared national policy in times of war or other national
emergency, or fix within specified limits, and subject to such limitations and restrictions as Congress may impose, tariff
rates, import and export quotas, tonnage and wharfage dues, and other duties or imposts within the framework of the
national development program of the Government. In this case, the PDAF articles which allow the individual legislator
to identify the projects to which his PDAF money should go to is a violation of the rule on non-delegability of legislative
power. The power to appropriate funds is solely lodged in Congress (in the two houses comprising it) collectively and
not lodged in the individual members. Further, nowhere in the exceptions does it state that the Congress can delegate
the power to the individual member of Congress.