EDITORIAL — ‘No more abuse of the budget’

Newly appointed Budget Secretary Kim Robert de Leon is making the right noises as he takes over the helm of a scandal-ridden agency.

With the biggest corruption scandal to erupt in the country still unresolved, De Leon vowed this week that the government “will not allow the budget to be abused again for another flood control scandal.”

De Leon said President Marcos had given him a clear directive: to ensure that “every peso will go to the people. Not to corruption. Not to negligence. Not to projects that are useless to the people.”

Having served as undersecretary in the Department of Budget and Management, De Leon should know whereof he speaks, and where reforms are needed in the budget process.

There’s an unknown factor in this reform equation, however, that De Leon will confront: politics.

Despite public outrage over the flood control scandal and the theft of public funds through the budget process, which produced what has been dubbed as the most corrupt outlay ever, the 2025 General Appropriations Act, members of the current 20th Congress held back on the reforms.

The 2026 GAA still has a substantial amount allotted for unprogrammed appropriations, seen as the new congressional pork barrel. The slew of unconditional and politicized dole-out programs or ayuda were not eliminated, except for AKAP or Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program.

Despite public opposition from 72 medical and healthcare organizations, the 2026 GAA also retained the so-called medical pork barrel, the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients.

MAIFIP, which gives politicians endorsement power in medical aid, received funding of P51.6 billion this year, higher than the P41.16 billion in the 2025 budget. The medical and healthcare groups said the money should have instead been allocated to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., where politicians have no say in the coverage.

President Marcos signed the GAA into law. He will also have the final say in whatever reforms De Leon might attempt to introduce in the budget process. De Leon’s reform agenda will only be as good as the support it receives from the President.

An assistant professor in the University of the Philippines, De Leon at 32 is also the youngest budget secretary. A nation outraged by the systematic looting of people’s money can only hope that his youthful zeal can make a dent in the crooked practices that have been institutionalized in the utilization of public funds.