SEN. Panfilo Lacson said that he and his staff have started scrutinizing the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget for 2027 after it was transmitted to Congress.
Lacson vowed to keep questionable, useless, and wasteful spending out of the National Expenditure Program (NEP) despite the Senate’s crowded schedule.
“We have started poring through the NEP in preparation for deliberations on the proposed budget for 2027,” Lacson, chairman of the Senate committees on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, Ways and Means, and Accounts, said in a radio interview.
He noted that the Senate is operating under a compressed schedule, with the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte in the mornings and regular plenary sessions in the afternoons. Some committee hearings have also been moved to the Philippine International Convention Center because of limited space in the Senate building.
A known advocate of transparency, Lacson pushed for the abolition of a “leadership fund” after then-Public Works secretary Manuel Bonoan acknowledged its existence during a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the flood control scam.
Lacson, who chaired the Blue Ribbon panel at the time, said that a “leadership fund” could undermine transparency and accountability in government spending.
He cited Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian’s decision to allow the livestreaming of bicameral conference committee proceedings as a major transparency reform.
“At least it is better than past years where the bicameral conference committee was turned into a third chamber,” Lacson said.
He expressed confidence that Sen. JV Ejercito, the current chairman of the Senate finance committee, will make the NEP deliberations more transparent.
Lacson criticized lawmakers who just wait for the NEP to reach Congress without participating in the formulation of local development plans.
“The budget process is not followed because some congressmen do not attend local development councils in discussing local development plans,” Lacson said.
He warned that this creates a disconnect between the needs identified by local government units and projects ultimately funded in the national budget.
“The disconnect is alarming,” he said.
