Article VI: The Legislative Department

Section 25. Limits on Power to Appropriate

Demetria v. Alba, 148 SCRA 208 (1987)
FACTS:
Demetrio Demetria et. al., as taxpayers and members of the Batasan Pambansa, sought to
prohibit Manuel Alba, then Minister of the Budget, from disbursing funds pursuant to PD
1177 or the Budget Reform Decree of 1977.
Demetria assailed the constitutionality of paragraph 1, Section 44 of the said PD. This
Section provides that:
The President shall have the authority to transfer any fund, appropriated for
the different departments, bureaus, offices and agencies of the Executive
Department, which are included in the General Appropriations Act, to any
program, project or activity of any department, bureau, or office included in the
General Appropriations Act or approved after its enactment.
ISSUE:
Whether the said provision is valid
RULING:
NO. Paragraph 1 of Section 44 of PD 1177 unduly over extends the privilege granted
under Section 25, Art. VI of the 1987 Constitution. It empowers the President to
indiscriminately transfer funds from one department, bureau, office or agency of the
Executive Department to any program, project or activity of any department, bureau or
office included in the General Appropriations Act or approved after its enactment,
without regard as to whether or not the funds to be transferred are actually savings in the
item from which the same are to be taken, or whether or not the transfer is for the purpose
of augmenting the item to which said transfer is to be made. Indeed, such constitutional
infirmities render the provision in question null and void.