OMBUDSMAN Jesus Crispin Remulla on Monday vowed to go after officials who manipulated the national budget following the Supreme Court’s ruling declaring portions of the 2024 to 2026 national budgets unconstitutional.
Asked whether the ruling could lead to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. being held liable, Remulla said the president’s role differed from that of lawmakers who made changes during congressional deliberations.
“The president submits the proposed bill to Congress. The action goes on inside Congress,” he said in an ambush interview.
Remulla warned that budget amendments made in bad faith or to manipulate public funds would be a different matter.
“For the people who gamed the budget, we will study how to go after them,” he said, adding that such practices “should never happen again.”
The Ombudsman said his office had begun a “budget watch” and that he would form a team to study the Supreme Court decision and the affected budgets to determine where responsibility lay and whether officials should be made to explain their actions.
He specifically flagged the placement of important government projects, including flood control, under unprogrammed appropriations, which are standby funds released only when conditions prescribed by law are met.
“They put important government projects under unprogrammed appropriations so they could put flood control there. What happened was really bad,” Remulla said.
Warning on lobbying
Meanwhile, Sen. Panfilo Lacson warned against money-laced lobbying in the 2027 budget process, saying government agencies must justify their funding requests rather than resort to questionable offers as Congress scrutinizes the proposed spending plan.
Lacson said agencies whose proposed 2027 budgets were reduced in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) could appeal to the House of Representatives and the Senate for funding restoration, provided they could justify their requests.
He said the Senate would continue scrutinizing the proposed budget with the help of budget advocates and civil society groups assisting lawmakers in examining the spending measure.
The senator also called for greater transparency throughout the budget process, including keeping livestream cameras running even during suspended deliberations, particularly at the bicameral conference committee level.
“We must sustain the practice of transparency in the budget,” Lacson said in a radio interview.
Lacson also warned against excessive reliance on financial assistance programs, including the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients and the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation, citing accounts of beneficiaries allegedly spending the money on shopping and gambling.
He said that the country’s projected budget deficit of P1.695 trillion and projected national debt ballooning to P21.48 trillion in 2027 could leave the Philippines sinking further into debt.
The senator also cited the projected gross borrowings of P3.043 trillion in 2027 for principal and interest payments.
Lacson said the Senate’s plan to slash P2 billion from its budget under the NEP to set an example of fiscal discipline could free up funds for realignment to education, health or other more productive endeavors, which would benefit Filipinos in the medium and long terms.
“If we don’t invest in productive endeavors, we won’t benefit in the long run. We will instead continue to sink deeper in debt,” he said.
