Angry nerds

The critics of the national budget, which the House recently passed, are ignorant, Deputy Speaker Ronnie Puno claims. Nothing could be further from the truth.

For example, Dr. Cielo Magno, a UP Economics professor, is no ignorant pushover. Her criticisms of the House-approved national budget are spot on.

Dr. Magno slammed the national budget for being heavily diverted toward temporary hand-outs designed to secure political capital for dynastic politicians rather than driving sustainable, long-term human capital development.

She has also flagged a resurgence of pork barrel funds.

Magno also decried slashing counterpart funding for foreign-assisted programs. This is stalling vital infrastructure projects and forcing the BBM government to pay P3.4 billion in commitment fees to keep international credit lines open.

Indeed, far from being ignorant, the civil society budget watchdogs are well educated professionals who work with numbers and data analytics for a living.

For example, BetterGov.PH is a group of technology volunteers who have developed digital tools to scrutinize the proposed 2027 national budget. Using data analytics, artificial intelligence and computer coding, BetterGov.PH made it easier to identify billions of pesos in congressional budget additions, previously buried in thousands of pages of government documents.

Separately, the People’s Budget Coalition (PBC), led by Adolfo Jose Montesa and public finance specialist Zy-Za Nadine Suzara, closely monitors budget changes. They flagged over P1 trillion in the 2027 national budget as potential “soft, hard and shadow pork” intended for political patronage.

Technology is increasingly making it more and more difficult for the thieves we elect as legislators from stealing from the National Treasury. Data scientists and AI experts are finding and exposing all the acts of treachery against the national interest.

And this time, these angry nerds are not going to back down. It is a last-ditch effort to save our country.

The CADENA Act (Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability Act) or Blockchain the Budget bill passed the Senate on final reading in December 2025 with a 17-0 vote. But it has been stuck in the House of Representatives for nearly a year.

It safeguards national funds by mandating that all stages of the Philippine national budget process be recorded on a secure, tamper-proof digital ledger. The congressmen don’t want that.

This is why the angry nerds must be relentless in exposing our corrupt officials. Our people must be made to realize that their lives remain miserable because the resources needed to improve their lives are being stolen by the leaders they elect.

I came across a social media post of Franklyn Ysaac, a UP graduate, former Citibanker and former president of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX). He pointed out the flaws in the budget making process of Congress.

“Budget is NOT just outflows. It has two books: DBM submits NEP (outflows) — P6.3 trillion for 2026 for example. DOF submits BESF (inflows) — BIR P3.6 trillion + BOC P1 trillion + others = P4.5 trillion revenue forecast.

“Both go to Congress together. Congress knows from day one it’s a deficit: P6.3 trillion - P4.5 trillion = P1.8 trillion gap. They approve it anyway because they assume the gap will be borrowed.

“The process IS on the wrong foot because: Spending is hard law (GAA), revenue is soft forecast. If BIR misses target by P300 billion (happens almost yearly), spending is already obligated. DBM can’t tell DPWH to ‘stop building’ mid-year.

“DBM allows ‘drawing’ via NCA (Notice of Cash Allocation). If Treasury has no cash, Bureau of Treasury issues T-bills / T-bonds = the IOUs. Now P15.8 trillion outstanding debt (Sept 2026).

“Deficit then adds to debt, debt adds to interest, interest is in next year’s outflows — paying that debt or debt service is now P1.3 trillion, bigger than DepEd budget.

“Can it be gapped?

“Technically yes, three ways, none easy: Raise collection, not rates — BIR gap is P400-500 billion annually from leakages.

“Growth > interest rate — If GDP grows six percent and you borrow at 5.5 percent, debt-to-GDP falls even with the deficit. But the Philippines grew 4.4 percent in 2025, 2.6 percent for the first semester of 2026, so not enough now. Need six to seven percent GDP growth.

“Cut or rephase — Flood control is example: P1.2 trillion spent in 2022-2025 with low completion. If you cut ghost projects, deficit shrinks without raising taxes.

“If none happens, you have runaway debt higher rates higher inflation  weaker peso higher rates again.

“Phl is not yet at runaway stage because: Debt-to-GDP is 61 percent (Sept 2026), not 90 percent like crisis levels. 75 percent are peso debt, not dollar debt. We owe ourselves, not IMF.

“But direction is bad. Every P1 trillion extra debt at six percent = P60 billion permanent interest that crowds out schools, flood control that actually works.”

There is more.

“Cycle of people’s money funding budget corruption: Government expenses (insertions) lead to deficit/ sourced from government debt/IOUs which banks +nonbanks buy, which are sourced from people’s deposits with banks.

“So, it’s not only our taxpayers’ money that funds the deficit/ corruption but also our deposits with banks.

“Net effect: There’s not enough money or funds for loans for productive use as funds end up with government leaders’ maleta!!!!”

And that, boys and girls, is how we are regularly screwed by the crooks we elect to Congress.

What is killing our economy today is lack of confidence in our government’s ability to do the right things. Winning back confidence should be on top of BBM’s agenda.

It can no longer be business as usual, otherwise the exchange rate will be P70 to the dollar before we know it, inflation will be double digit and there will be a lot of angry and hungry people in the streets.

The angry nerds are our last chance to shame our officials to do the right things, assuming they are capable of shame. We must all sustain the anger until we get a budget we can afford, to finance projects we direly need.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco