Rep. Elizaldy Co, Chairman of the House committee on appropriations and co-chair of the bicameral conference committee on the 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB), must stop calling me names and becoming personal but must stick to the facts and the truth that P12-B was inserted by the bicameral conference committee in the 2024 Comelec’s budget for “plebiscites”, among others, related to the charter change agenda.
Embedded in the 2024 General Appropriations Act is the total amount of about P14-B for the “Conduct and supervision of elections, referenda, recall votes and plebiscites”, P12-B of which was inserted by the bicameral conference committee under the budget of the Commission of Elections.
If the campaign for people’s initiative to amend the Constitution is inspired by noble and patriotic motives, then why buy the people’s will?
Congressmen from the supermajority coalition have launched a campaign for charter change via people’s initiative.
This year’s General Appropriations Act (GAA) which took effect on 01 January 2024 suffers a constitutional infirmity insofar as the bicameral conference committee inserted P449.5 billion in excess of the unprogrammed appropriations of P281.9 billion recommended by the President in the national budget or the National Expenditure Program (NEP).
