SEN. Panfilo Lacson yesterday said insertions made in the previous years’ national budgets can be traced if past chairpersons of the Senate finance committee and the House appropriations committee will speak out and bare what they know about it.
In an interview with dzBB, Lacson said the budget insertions are usually contained in the individual amendments proposed by lawmakers.
He said that in the Senate, the chairman of the Committee on Finance, by practice, asks each senator to submit their individual amendments to the proposed national budget before the spending bill is set for second reading approval.
He said former senators Juan Edgardo Angara and Grace Poe, who chaired the Senate finance panel in the 19th Congress, and former House appropriations committee chairs Zaldy Co and Stella Quimbo can help identify the senators and congressmen, respectively, who initiated budget insertions, the amounts of the insertions, and for what government programs or provinces or regions.
“Mayroon diyang mga dokumento kung sino ang nag-submit ng mga proposed amendments…Kung may hawak pa sila, kung tinago nila yung sinubmit na mga individual amendments. Kung wala na, kung tinapon na nila or kung meron pa pero ayaw naman nila i-share, hindi natin mati-trace. Ganon din sa (House) appro (appropriations committee), sa small committee, kung hawak pa nila yung mga sinubmit, unless binulong lang iyon (There are documents which can help identify who submitted proposed amendments… If they [former chairpersons] still have the copy, if they have kept the submitted individual amendments. If not, or if they have already thrown them away, or if they still have them but refuse to share, we cannot trace [the budget insertions]. The same goes for the House appropriations committee, in their small committee, if they still have the copy, unless the amendments were made verbally),” Lacson said.
BUDGET BRIEFING
Lacson said he will raise during today’s briefing of the Development Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC) on the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026 the issues on transparency and accountability.
He said he will grill the Executive’s budget managers on at least five matters, including the government’s borrowings and disbursements, or “cash flow.”
“They must explain to us the cash flow or the total amount the government allocates,” he said in Filipino, adding he will also ask why the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was given more funds than the education sector in the 2025 national budget, in violation of the provision of the 1987 Constitution that the education sector should be given the “highest budgetary priority.”
“The issue on the education sector, because Article XIV, Section 5, paragraph 5 of the Constitution says that the education sector should be given the highest budgetary priority. But in the 2025 budget, DPWH got more funds than the education sector. I want them to explain this – how did we reach the point that we did not obey the Constitution),” he also said.
He would also seek clarification on the merits of Executive Order No. 82, which calls for the strengthening of the Regional Development Council in the budget process, pointing out that it should be the local development councils which should be enhanced since they are the ones who can identify priority projects.
“When I was in the Senate years back, I also questioned why only 20 percent of the local development councils’ output were included in the NEP. They [local development councils] are the ones who know the needs and priorities of their areas and yet we only adopt 20 percent of what they submit),” he said.
He said he also wants budget managers to shed light on the government’s policies on “unprogrammed appropriations,” noting that some lawmakers tinker with it.
As an example, he said an area in Oriental Mindoro only has an allocation of P810 million for projects but a lawmaker realigned the funds to the unprogrammed appropriations and raised it to P1.1 billion.
He said he will ask the DBCC about an application created by the Department of Budget and Management where the public can better understand how their taxes are spent by the government.
Also during the interview, Lacson clarified that he is not meddling in the work of Sen. Rodante Marcoleta as chairman of the blue ribbon committee.
In his TV program last Friday, Marcoleta criticized Lacson for asking to reschedule the blue ribbon committee hearing scheduled today, which will be held simultaneously with the DBCC briefing.
The Marcoleta panel’s hearing is slated at 9 a.m., while the budget briefing is set at 10 a.m.
“Ang manifestation ko eh baka puwedeng paghiwalayin yung petsa kasi parehong napaka-importante. Hindi ko naman mini-menos yung kanyang blue ribbon committee hearing. Nire-recognize ko naman yung kanyang mandato. Pero sa kanyang TV program, pini-pintasan niya kami. Sabi niya pinaghihimasukan daw namin siya. Walang nanghihimasok dito. Gusto lang naming lahat mapa-ayos ang takbo ng gobyerno (I manifested that maybe they can schedule the hearing and briefing on different dates because both are very important. I am not trying to set aside his blue ribbon committee hearing. I recognize his mandate. But in his TV program, he criticized us. He said that we are trying to meddle with his mandate. There is no such thing as that. All we want is to have a better government),” Lacson said.
“So gusto ko lang i-korek yung misimpression na puwedeng ma-create ni Sen. Marcoleta. Ayaw ko ng away, pero kapag inaway niya kami eh aawayin ko rin siya (So, I just want to correct the misimpression that Sen. Marcoleta might create. I do not want to pick a fight with him but if he does, I will fight back),” he said.
