MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson on Thursday flagged questionable lump-sum infrastructure allocations—including uniform P180-million amounts per region for evacuation centers totaling over P3 billion—in the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget for 2027.
During the Committee on Finance hearing with the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC), Lacson asked Budget Secretary Kim Robert de Leon about appropriations for "blank" items or those lacking key details after the latter said that the 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP) is "execution-ready."
"Interestingly, Sec, you said the budget preparation is execution ready, meaning with a program of work. But we saw lump sum allocations of P180M each for all 17 regions, for evacuation centers. But there were no specifics. Much as we would like to believe you, the NEP says otherwise," Lacson told de Leon.
"And mind you, this is not just for the 2027 NEP. We also saw P100-million lump sums each for all 17 regions. We will ask the DPWH about this too but since this is part of policy, why did the DBCC allow the budget to fund items that are 'blank,' meaning there are amounts but no details?" he added, referring to the Department of Public Works and Highways' budget for 2026.
De Leon explained that the agencies would still be required to submit the final details to the DBM before the allocations could be implemented, adding the Office of Civil Defense still has to finalize the list.
Still, Lacson pointed out that such details should have been submitted during the budget preparation stage.
