GRECO ANTONIOUS BEDA B. BELGICA v. EXECUTIVE SECRETARY PAQUITO N.

OCHOA

[ GR No. 208566, Nov 19, 2013 ]

PERLAS-BERNABE, J.:

Facts:
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). 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. Motivated by the foregoing, Greco Belgica
and several others, filed various petitions before the Supreme Court questioning the
constitutionality of the pork barrel system.

Issue:

Whether or not PDAF violates the non-delegability of legislative powers

Ruling:

Yes, 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 wharf age 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.