Shameless!

The more I read reports about the 2025 budget, the more angry I become. I won’t keep quiet, so I’m writing this letter. How shameless can these lawmakers be, how stupid do they think Filipinos are, that they play around with the national budget to feed their insatiable greed and fund their campaigns for next year’s election.

Why do congressmen and senators have a budget for ayuda, now called AKAP – which in this case stands for ang kapal ng mukha! Distributing ayuda – whether to the poorest of the poor (4Ps) or the near poor – that’s the work of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). When they slashed the budget of the Office of the Vice President, they said the OVP should not be duplicating the programs of the DSWD so it should not be given funds for social services programs – fine. So what is AKAP if not a social services program that should be handled by DWSD? Lawmakers have absolutely no business giving out ayuda – except as campaign gimmicks to buy votes. Ang kapal talaga!

They justify cutting the Department of Education and PhilHealth allocations by saying these two offices still have money to be used for their programs – unused budgets from previous years (DepEd) as well as reserve funds (PhilHealth).

What justification do they have for giving the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) a budget of P1.1 trillion, so many times more than what the department itself asked for and what Malacañang asked for in their budget proposal? Obvious ba – for what other purpose but projects or ghost projects from which they can get huge kickbacks. Hoy, mga magnanakaw sa Kongreso, nabisto na kayo – you’re busted! Ang kapal talaga – you guys are really shameless!

– DINA MARIA ANGELES, Quezon City