The challenge for lawmakers is to build protections that work in practice, not merely impose restrictions that are difficult to enforce or easy to evade.

The Supreme Court’s latest ruling on Unprogrammed Appropriations is an important step toward restoring discipline and accountability in the national budget. It does not abolish UA. But it makes clear that this budgetary device cannot be used to circumvent constitutional limits or give the Executive virtually unrestricted discretion over public spending.

Duterte’s co-perpetrators named in the prosecution’s trial brief are senators Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, former national police chiefs Oscar Albayalde and Camilo Cascolan, former director of the National Bureau of Investigation Dante Gierran, former head of drug enforcement agency Isidro Lapeña, former justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and former Manila Police District director Vicente Danao.