Greco Belgica

Greco Belgica
Member of the Manila City Council from the 6th district
In office
June 30, 2004 – June 30, 2007
Personal details
Born (1978-03-27) March 27, 1978
Manila
Political party
Spouse(s) Nina Rizzi Velasco Belgica
Relations Grepor "Butch" Belgica (father)
Carmelita Banta Bélgica, MD (mother)
Residence Manila
Alma mater San Beda College
University of California, Berkeley extension, US (postgraduate studies), Pamantasan ng Lunsod ng Maynila (L.L.B)
Occupation church elder, politician, lawyer
Profession businessman
Religion Christian

Greco Antonious Beda Banta Belgica (born March 27, 1978) is a Filipino politician.

Early life

Bélgica serves as an elder of the Lord's Vineyard Church and is currently president of the Yeshua Change Agents, a non-government organization involved in anti-drug campaigns and advocating reconstruction of society to its Biblical form. He is also the founder of ReformPH Movement.

Political career

He previously served as councilor of the sixth district of the City of Manila from 2004 to 2007.

Bélgica ran as a candidate in the 2013 Philippine Senate election under the newly accredited Democratic Party of the Philippines, but failed to win a seat.[1][2]

One of Bélgica's campaign promises was a flat tax system for the Philippines; in particular, a simple, one-time, and one kind tax of not more than 10% only on net income on both individual and business profits. He also espouses belief in a limited and decentralized form of government, a free market, and Christian Reconstructionism. He leads the campaign to convert the PDAF and other discretionary funds of politicians to tuition vouchers for all students and capital for families, individuals and businessmen. He believes that money and resources should be in the hands of people and not with politicians and government.[3]

In the 2016 Senate election, he ran again for a senate seat as part of the party supporting Rodrigo Duterte for President, as well as a guest candidate for Miriam Santiago-Bongbong Marcos party. But again, he failed.

Belgica v. Ochoa

In 2013, Belgica and his group questioned the constitutionality of the pork barrel system. A very controversial case that had three prior Supreme Court rulings that said the country wide development fund or CDF and PDAF or the priority development fund of legislators were constitutional. However, with a much celebrated decision, after three months, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Belgica, with a unanimous vote of 14-0-1 abstain, and said that pork barrel system is unconstitutional.

In its landmark decision G.R. No. 208566 the Supreme Court defined that the pork barrel funds are lump sum discretionary funds appropriated in both the executive and legislative department. It further held, that there two kinds of pork barrel funds. The executive lump sum discretionary funds and the legislative lump sum discretionary fund known as the PDAF.

Belgica also questioned the constitutionality of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and the 2014 Lump Sums in the budget.

Petitioners: Greco Antonious Beda B. Belgica, Bishop Reuben Abante, Rev.Jojo Gonzales, Quintin Paredes San Diego, Atty. Jose Malvar Villegas, Atty. Samson Alcantara, Pedrito Nepomuceno

Respondents: The Honorable Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa,Jr., Department of Budget and Management Secretary Florencio B. Abad, National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon, The Senate of the Philippines represented by Franklin S. Drilon in his capacity as Senate President, and The House of Representatives represented by Speaker Feliciano S. Belmonte in his capacity as Speaker of the House, Department of Budget and Management.

References

  1. ↑ Santos, Reynaldo, Jr. (2012-10-26). "Comelec approves 5 more senatorial bets". Rappler. Retrieved 2013-01-01.
  2. ↑ Portfolio and List of Services - Blitz Communication Philippines, retrieved 2013-01-03
  3. ↑ Pedroche, Al G. (2012-11-17). "Greco Belgica - From councilor to senator". Philippine Star. Retrieved 2013-01-01.

Senatorial campaign

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