With the opening of the second regular session of the current 20th Congress, the executive is expected to submit this August its proposed national budget for 2027.
As approved under the National Expenditure Program, the executive is expected to propose P7.2 trillion for 2027 – an increase of six percent from this year’s national budget.
With Congress soon to start deliberations on the proposed General Appropriations Act, two former finance secretaries have urged the Marcos administration to closely monitor the process, to ensure that the GAA will come out clean.
Benjamin Diokno, now a member of the Monetary Board, cited as an example the Local Government Support Fund, which he described as a form of pork barrel. He said LGUs have also failed to fully utilize their larger share of national taxes.
Gary Teves, for his part, urged the executive to closely monitor insertions in the proposed GAA, and for President Marcos to use his veto powers against questionable allocations.
Investigations continue into the large-scale corruption arising from the budget process in recent years, with massive funding insertions made by lawmakers particularly during the bicameral conference.
After the flood control scandal erupted, both chambers of Congress moved to promote transparency in the budget process. They also scrapped the controversial politicized Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program or AKAP, but retained other aid programs where they can still have a say, particularly the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients. Medical and healthcare groups have decried MAIFIP as a medical pork barrel.
But even before the flood control mess, the budget process was already challenged before the Supreme Court after the 19th Congress inserted a provision in the 2024 GAA, authorizing the Department of Finance to impound supposed excess funds of all government-owned and controlled corporations.
The GOCCs included the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp., whose impounded funds could then be tapped to finance the latest incarnation of the congressional pork barrel, the unprogrammed appropriations under the GAA.
Such fund juggling circumvented the Supreme Court prohibition on pork barrel-type allocations. The SC ordered the return of the PhilHealth funds and the 2025 GAA no longer carried the controversial impounding provision.
In his State of the Nation Address last Monday, President Marcos said guarantee letters from politicians will no longer be required for access to MAIFIP, which is administered by the Department of Health. The implementation of this order remains to be seen.
The promised transparency in the budget process will also be closely watched. While there have been improvements, more reforms and better implementation are needed.