The coordinates for a P23-million farm-to-market road in Nueva Ecija for funding in the 2027 budget pointed to a spot in the ocean near the Philippine Rise, according to a budget watchdog.
As tallied by the People’s Budget Coalition, 7,054 agricultural infrastructure projects including farm-to-market roads amounting to nearly P190 billion were inserted by members of the House of Representatives, a.k.a. HOR, into the P7.2-trillion outlay proposed for 2027 by Malacañang.
The watchdog warned that farm-to-market roads (and multipurpose buildings) appear to be the new flood control projects for HOR members.
Nueva Ecija happens to be the home turf of the current chair of the House committee on appropriations, Mikaela Suansing, who broke into tears after the HOR passed its insertion-packed 2027 budget bill.
Hearing all the horror stories emerging from the House budget deliberations, as narrated by budget watchdogs, you have to wonder if legislators are beyond shame and are incorrigibly evil.
The farm-to-market roads aren’t even entirely new. They are the latest incarnation of the farm-to-resort roads unknowingly bankrolled by taxpayers for the family businesses of thieving lawmakers in previous years.
We also had the fertilizer fund scam – remember that scandal? – wherein P728 million was distributed supposedly for fertilizers even in crowded cities where the only spaces for gardens were on porches and in small backyards.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was accused of using the fertilizer funds for her presidential bid in 2004. Most of the officials convicted and imprisoned for the scam are unknowns. GMA herself was cleared, along with her agriculture secretary at the time, Luis “Cito” Lorenzo Jr. and undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-joc” Bolante.
GMA’s political durability should be heartening to President Marcos. Being the final approving authority for the annual national budget, BBM should share the blame for the systematic pillage of public funds through creative budgeting.
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For 2027, Marcos’ son Sandro’s district in Ilocos Norte has been awarded an impressively high P4 billion for public works projects including multipurpose buildings. Will BBM go along with this?
The Supreme Court has just struck down as unconstitutional the General Appropriations Acts for 2024 and 2025, when BBM’s cousin Martin Romualdez was the speaker, along with portions of the current GAA.
This unprecedented slap on Congress and Malacañang by the Supreme Court is related to the latest incarnation of the pork barrel, the unprogrammed appropriations.
UAs have been increasing exponentially for several budget seasons now, reaching unconscionable proportions in 2024 and 2025. This, the SC noted in its ruling, bloated the GAAs for those years beyond the total spending program proposed by the executive, which is unconstitutional.
In 2025, we saw the budget for the Department of Public Works and Highways set higher than the budget for the entire education sector. The sector was itself artificially bloated by the inclusion of learning institutions that should be under other executive departments, such as the academies for the military and police.
The 2025 outlay has been described by budget watchdogs as the most corrupt GAA ever. The one in 2024 was a runner-up. This GAA had a rider that effectively amended the charters of all government corporations, allowing the impounding of supposed excess funds of the state firms and rechanneling to the UA.
But again, who signed those GAAs, with only token vetoes?
For 2027, the HOR cut P130 billion from the funds allotted for big-ticket foreign-assisted infrastructure projects including the subway, North-South Commuter Railway and Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge. We pay billions in commitment fees and penalties when foreign-funded projects are suspended and delayed.
The thieves slashed funds proposed by the executive for education, health and agriculture and instead increased the budgets for the HOR, for a slew of politicized ayuda or dole-outs and for smaller infrastructure projects for their districts.
Will BBM go along with it?
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Recent indictments before the Sandiganbayan and ongoing probes confirm our worst suspicions about the political class: they have mastered the exploitation of the system for personal gain.
Among lawmakers, a common MO is for a political clan to set up construction-related businesses. Many clans now have a member at every level of government, from the barangay to the national positions. So a family member endorses an infrastructure project to the executive, pushes congressional approval for funding, and maneuvers to ensure that the contract for implementation plus the provision of supplies and services are awarded to the family’s businesses.
National government approval is needed typically for big-ticket projects, and the endorser will need to be allied with the administration.
But local governments have wide discretion over smaller projects, which can be further split to avoid the P50-million threshold for a plunder indictment, just in case some nasty busybody plans to file a complaint.
The pork barrel, like those farm-to-market roads and flood control projects, keeps rising back up like a zombie. Our country is facing a zombie apocalypse.
Worse, there’s no certainty that anyone will be punished. Even those who might face punishment will still get to keep a large chunk of their loot, as we are seeing in the case of several looters-turned-state witnesses.
Zaldy Co, who should know where all the bodies are buried, will continue to enjoy life in Paris precisely because of what he knows.
There’s a strong buzz that like administration ally Bong Revilla, Martin Romualdez himself will be granted bail before Christmas, shortly after Vice President Sara Duterte is ousted from her post by the Senate impeachment court. Romualdez’s bail supposedly will be a prelude to his eventual acquittal.
Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, who is said to be on legacy mode as he contemplates his mortality, seems to be sincerely trying to pin down the big fish. Seeing the extent of corruption, however, from the barangay all the way to the top levels of government, it will be understandable if his office is overwhelmed.
If the ombudsman can’t nail down thieves for plunder because of that bizarre main plunderer doctrine of the Supreme Court (which cleared GMA), can’t they be charged instead with qualified theft? Economic sabotage? Anything that will allow taxpayers to toss thieves in jail and throw away the key?
The shamelessness in creative budgeting is stupefying. People are also moved to tears – of rage.
Beyond getting mad, that rage must be channeled into action that will kick out the looters.