‘Time to shame budget insertion legislators’

Watchdogs set to join bicam deliberations

MANILA, Philippines — Civil society organizations will be invited to the bicameral conference committee so they can publicly shame those who would be caught inserting their pet projects in the proposed 2027 national budget, according to Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

In an interview on Friday with “Storycon” on One News, Lacson said public vigilance alone may not be enough to discourage unscrupulous lawmakers from manipulating the budget process.

“We must not just be vigilant. We may have to resort to shaming because there are those who are shameless in making insertions and we are still reeling from the flood control scandal,” Lacson said.

It’s in the bicameral conference committee where both chambers of Congress meet to reconcile conflicting provisions in the General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

Lacson challenged budget watchdogs to be prepared to stay during the expectedly lengthy budget deliberations so they could detect and block up to P1 trillion in potential “hard, soft and shadow” pork barrel items tucked in several ayuda programs like the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation, Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP), Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers, Presidential Assistance to Farmers and Fisherfolk, Tulong Dunong programs and in the House-inserted public works projects.

He said the Senate livestreaming of the bicam should be continuous and with no suspensions, which last year allowed some legislators to surreptitiously discuss deals and compromises on the sidelines.

‘Gung-ho’

Lacson said he and his fellow Senate majority bloc members are behind Senate finance committee chairman JV Ejercito’s going tough in addressing red flags in the House’s GAB.

“Our attitude now is to go gung-ho. If anyone gets hit, so be it. There will be no exceptions, otherwise the exception could become the general rule,” he said, adding that even the inserted projects of presidential son House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos will not be spared from scrutiny.

Marcos’ Ilocos Norte first district has 405 projects worth P4.37 billion – the biggest chunk of Department of Public Works and Highways projects inserted in the House GAB.

“If we make exceptions, many will ask for exceptions and we won’t succeed because there will be a lot of bargaining,” Lacson said.

He called for a total reengineering of the budget proposal, starting with the Development Budget Coordination Committee, so that the executive’s spending plan or National Expenditure Program (NEP) would be shielded from insertions.

“I have read that when the law fails to protect the people from the corrupt and instead protects the corrupt from the people, we’re doomed,” Lacson said.

Speaking over radio dwIZ, Ejercito said civil society groups would have a dedicated spot at the gallery of the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) where the bicam would be held sometime in December.

As for publicly shaming any proponent, Ejercito said doing such by shouting at legislators during bicam may not be a good scenario, but he admitted the presence of civil society groups may serve as a “deterrent” to budgetary insertions.

He reiterated that “last-minute” amendments to the national budget to accommodate legislators’ pet projects won’t be allowed.

Ejercito said he and Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian met on Friday with new DPWH Secretary GIovanni Lopez and with Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon to vet a list of public works projects with geotagged coordinates and backed with technical studies, among other criteria, to weed out those merely inserted by congressmen.

He vowed to enforce a “no complete requirements, no budget” rule to ensure funds are spent on projects that would be implemented and not lost to corruption.

Deadline

He set a Nov. 3 deadline for Lopez to submit complete documentary requirements and justifications for the 6,271 infrastructure projects inserted in the House-GAB.

According to the Senate finance committee, the number of DPWH infrastructure projects increased from 11,420 in the NEP to 16,244 in the House GAB.

Of the entries in the GAB, 6,271 new projects were not part of the executive branch’s original submission.

Ejercito said he will report to plenary the Senate version of the GAB on Nov. 9, when session resumes after the Undas break. Plenary debate, however, will only start on Nov. 23 as the chamber also has to resume the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.

While admitting lack of “elbow room” in crafting the Senate version of the GAB due to the tight schedule, Ejercito vowed to have the budget ready for the President’s signature by the second week of December.

He also vowed to include in the budget some P100-billion to P120-billion state subsidy to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), after its budgetary support  went down from P129.8 billion in the approved 2026 national budget to P74.4 billion in the NEP for 2027.

The House did not increase the PhilHealth subsidy in its GAB, opting instead to increase the budget for the Department of Health’s alleged medical pork barrel MAIFIP from P24 billion in the NEP to nearly P50 billion in the GAB.

Budget advocacy groups warned that the P74-billion allocation for PhilHealth is inadequate and would likely be depleted by March 2027.

Ejercito also vowed to be more strict in designating foreign-assisted and military modernization projects under the unprogrammed appropriations, following the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling requiring more stringent implementation so they won’t be used to create artificial fiscal space.

Responding to the call of over 30 business groups to weed out projects with no technical basis in the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget next year, Gatchalian said the finance committee will “remove from the GAB all projects lacking supporting documents, such as feasibility studies, programs of work, resolutions from the LGUs and other required documents.”

Gatchalian also vowed to continue last year’s transparency reforms when he was finance committee chair by uploading all budget documents in the Senate transparency portal.