Signs of the times

The weather remains gloomy, but it’s heating up in the Senate.

Last week, amid the torrential rains, Senate President Chiz Escudero’s alleged insertions into the 2025 budget made headlines.

Actually, the 2025 budget had long been signed, but the issue of alleged insertions became a hot item again – perhaps because of the Senate presidency race and, of course, the heavy floods we experienced last week.

A huge part of the insertions – in billions of pesos – was allocated for flood control projects in Bulacan. And yet, parts of Bulacan were once again submerged last week.

Commuters and motorists were stuck for hours, some overnight, along the Bulacan part of the North Luzon Expressway, no thanks to the heavy flooding.

But it’s not only Bulacan. Nearly every day last week, Filipinos had to wade through Metro Manila’s flooded nooks and crannies and main thoroughfares because of the rains.

Against this backdrop, Escudero’s budget insertions raised eyebrows, with returning lawmaker and potential Senate president contender Vicente “Tito” Sotto III vowing to investigate the insertions.

The alleged insertions, Sotto said, include a jaw-dropping P1.1-trillion allocation to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), an amount that exceeds the government’s budget for education.

The insertions, first reported by Bilyonaryo and Vera Files, were reportedly sealed behind closed doors in a so-called “small bicam” quietly led by Escudero.

Here are the insertions, according to the documents posted by Vera Files:

For Bulacan: P2.9 billion for flood control, P3.2 billion for roads, P3.6 billion for buildings and P2.3 billion for streetlights.

Second placer is Escudero’s home province of Sorsogon, with a total of P9.1 billion – P1.2 billion for flood control, P3 billion for roads, P525 million for bridges and P4.4 billion for buildings.

Davao, meanwhile, is getting an allocation of P7.2 billion, while Valenzuela City is allocated P4.2 billion.

Escudero responds

Escudero, in an interview on ANC, said that he will not respond to reports based on anonymous sources, but noted that if true, “a P150-billion budget out of P6.3 trillion is only two percent.” He dismissed the accusations as part of the “current political climate,” especially with a looming election for the next Senate president for the 20th Congress.

“I will not go down to their level,” Escudero said.

He also pointed to the House of Representatives, saying there were bigger insertions from congressmen in the past budget deliberations.

Indeed, last Christmas, the House of Representatives got publicly roasted for trimming down the budgets of education, health and agriculture. The backlash was swift: the President delayed his signature on the 2025 budget.

Now, the spotlight belatedly swings to the Senate. What will Malacañang do, considering that it wields influence over the choice of Senate president? Will it push for Sotto as the next Senate chief? Will Escudero’s budgetary sleight of hand backfire?

But at the end of the day, this is not about Escudero alone. It’s really about the blatant allocations for flood control projects that seem ineffective in controlling our worsening flood situation.

Senator Ping Lacson summed it up well:

“Isn’t it absurd that the rise of floodwaters in our ‘malas’ country is directly proportional to the increase in the annual budget for the national government’s flood management program? For 15 years since 2011, the DPWH is supposed to have spent almost P2 trillion, and yet...”

All these and more are indeed signs of our times.

It all boils down to corruption, which, as I said, is eating us alive and ruining our future – and that of our children and our children’s children.

We just ended a whole week with no classes; our poor students lost crucial days of learning, no thanks to torrential rains and heavy flooding. One wonders why the secretary of the Interior would even make class suspension announcements a joking matter.

Against this backdrop, Filipino children – 91 percent of whom are considered learning-poor – struggle to read with comprehension.

Our President and his negotiating team traveled all the way to Washington only to see a reduction in our tariffs to just 19 percent from 20 percent — a mere one-percentage-point reduction. At 19 percent, it’s even higher than the previously announced 17 percent tariff on Philippine goods. As social media kibitzers pointed out, sana nag-Zoom meeting na lang.

Our health system is still run on connections, not competence. And our farmers? Still among the hungriest of our people.

We have a Supreme Court that just declared the Articles of Impeachment lodged by the House of Representatives against Vice President Sara Duterte as “unconstitutional,” saying they violate the one-year rule under the Constitution as well as her right to due process.

With this, there’s no way of finding out just yet the truth behind VP Sara’s use of her funds.

Manila in these times is really one dizzying soap opera. You can’t help but wonder what’s next.

Perhaps it will be the highly anticipated boxing match between PNP chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III and Duterte boy Baste? One has been preparing for the fight, the other supposedly hopped on a flight.

Today, after all, is the much-awaited Sunday – the supposed day of the fight. Many are eager for a brawl, especially Filipinos who crave a spectacle, if only to forget, even for a few minutes, our challenging and sometimes flooded daily life.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on X @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.