“NO one [will] be spared.”
That is the vow that Sen. Panfilo Lacson made before the week turned. He was talking about the planned purge of the House-approved 2027 national budget bill filled with “corruption-prone” insertions.
“The majority of senators are rallying behind Senate finance committee chairman JV Ejercito’s efforts to cleanse the 2027 budget of unwarranted, whimsical and corruption-prone items. 'All means all!'" Lacson said on a social media post last Friday.
Lacson earlier told “Storycon” on One News that the budget scrutiny would “absolutely” include Ilocos Norte’s 1st district, represented by President Marcos’ son Sandro, which received a big chunk of the public works funding insertions. This humongous budget for the district of the president’s son has been the subject of withering criticism on social media.
The declaration of support follows Ejercito’s recent ultimatum to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). The controversial department has until Nov. 3 to submit complete documents for 6,271 new infrastructure projects inserted by the House of Representatives. Failure to meet the deadline means having these “insertions” dropped from the national spending bill.
A Senate review had exposed that DPWH infrastructure projects grew from 11,420 in the executive’s National Expenditure Program to 16,244 in the House-transmitted General Appropriations bill. To prevent backroom deals and safeguard the budget process, Lacson said that the Senate would continue the transparency reforms begun by Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian.
Ejercito has also committed to inviting civil society organizations to observe the bicameral conference committee deliberations, which will be livestreamed to the public. Going livestream is good. It is the equivalent of sunlight in a musty room, whose presence airs the place and destroys the viruses therein.
As for the upper chamber, Lacson doubts if any senator would attempt to slip in unvetted funding given the majority’s current hardline stance. But then, you would never know, given the thick hide of some senators. The Senate will discuss the budget bill when it resumes plenary sessions on Nov. 9, with full plenary debates beginning on Nov. 23.
Putting public funds under a microscope is necessary, given the dismal economic context we now have. Inflation is accelerating, the peso is weakening, economic growth is slowing, and the government’s debt has been rising to a new record high of P19.66 trillion as of Sept. 30. Many people just want to leave.
As of June 30, a weak gross domestic product growth and increased borrowings had pushed the debt-to-GDP ratio to a 21-year high of 66 percent.
But instead of fiscal prudence, we see in broad daylight the congressmen fattening their piggy banks. Myopic, self-serving interests of individual lawmakers have dominated the budget process, laying to waste any attempt to have strategic objectives in the use of our limited public funds.
Despite the scandal over massive corruption arising from the thievery that had apparently been institutionalized in the crafting of the annual national budget, the 2027 General Appropriations bill done by the House of Representatives indicates that congressmen are unmoved by public outrage.
Budget watchdogs have flagged over P1 trillion in questionable items inserted or realigned from the NEP by House members in their version of the GAB. The People’s Budget Coalition described the flagged items as “hard, soft and shadow pork barrel.”
“Hard” pork refers to P695 billion in lump sums for infrastructure projects, including multipurpose buildings and farm-to-market roads, that lack documentation, cost justifications and science-based planning.
“Soft” pork refers to P210 billion in social assistance, or ayuda, used for patronage and distributed through the discretionary referrals of politicians in the form of guarantee letters. “Shadow” pork refers to P112 billion in unprogrammed or standby appropriations that can be released with wide discretion.
The red flags have prompted even the usually staid business community to issue a statement of concern over the mangling of the 2027 budget. Last Thursday, over 30 business groups issued a joint statement urging Congress to remove the flagged insertions and correct the questionable realignments. The groups also called for the restoration of P130 billion in funding for foreign-assisted projects (FAPs). The delayed implementation of FAPs due to the withdrawal of counterpart funding is costing the country billions in commitment fees and other penalties.
Congressmen have been tarred as similar to greedy swamp crocodiles. The late National Artist Amado V. Hernandez wrote about political patronage and corruption in his two searing classic novels, "Mga Ibong Mandaragit" and "Luha ng Buwaya." There is still time for our congressmen to shed this unsavory image.
But will they?
