THE major realignments in this year’s P6.352 trillion national budget, including the increase in the allocation for public works programs, did not happen at the House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno of Antipolo City said yesterday.
Puno was reacting to Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who, on Monday night, raised concerns over the amendments made by the 19th Congress to the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation’s (PhilHealth) P74 billion subsidy.
Lacson was referring to the realignment of the P74 billion in PhilHealth funds to other items in the 2025 GAA, which resulted in the state insurer having zero subsidy for 2025.
While he was not a member of the previous Congress, Puno said the House did not introduce the P74 billion PhilHealth realignment when it passed its version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for Fiscal Year 2025.
“Ngayon sa budget na ‘yun, kung titingnan ninyo, nandyan lang naman, public document, pwede nyong kunin sa secretariat, hindi nawala ‘yung PhilHealth budget. Intact (Now if you’ll take a look at that budget, it’s just there, it’s a public document and you can get it from the secretariat, the PhilHealth budget was not changed. It was intact),” Puno said.
He, however, did not discount the possibility that the changes were introduced at the bicameral level when congressmen and senators iron out the differing provisions of their approved versions of the GAB.
Lacson has said the realignment of the P74 billion in PhilHealth funds to other items in the 2025 GAA was illegal and resulted in PhilHealth having zero subsidy under the 2025 budget.
He said the move “effectively amended the Sin Tax Law, violating the principle that a general law cannot amend a special law.”
“The GAA is a general law and the Sin Tax is a special law. And any lawyer will tell you, or any member of Congress will tell you that a general law cannot amend a special law. In other words, what the Senate did and what the House did was illegal,” Lacson said when he interpellated Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito who delivered a privilege speech calling for the creation of a Joint Congressional Oversight to determine if the Universal Health Care Law is being effectively implemented.
Upon questioning of Lacson, Ejercito said the PhilHealth fund was cut down to P43 billion in the Senate version of the budget and was totally wiped out in the bicameral conference committee.
“How much was realigned in the HoR version, how much in the Senate version, how much was realigned in the bicam?” Lacson asked, to which Ejercito replied: “From what I remembered in the Senate version, only P43 billion (out of the P74 billion) remained… But in the bicam, it was totally gone.”
Lacson said he is aware that the matter has been questioned by some quarters before the Supreme Court and “we’re just discussing” the issue in the plenary.
He said lawmakers should well know that the transfer was illegal.
“We all know this, we should not have agreed…. That is already earmarked under the Sin Tax Law. Why did it slip past the Senate? Why did it slip past the HOR when it has lawyers? The Senate also has lawyers. How was it that the GAA amended a special law?” he asked, adding that any excess in PhilHeath funds is to be used to increase members’ benefits or to lower their premiums.
BUDGET REALIGNMENTS
Puno said the P12 billion cut in the budget of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the increase in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which is now being investigated for possible graft and corruption in the failed flood control projects, were also not introduced under the House-approved version of the 2025 GAB.
“Sa version ng House, hindi nabawasan ‘yung Department of Education budget. Intact. In fact, mataas. Ang nabawasan dito sa House, ‘yung Public Works budget, okay? Tingnan niyo niyan (In the version of the House, the DepEd’s budget was not slashed. In fact, it was high. What the House reduced was the public works budget, okay? Take a look at it),” he said.
The amendments to the budget, Puno said, did not originate from the House and only surfaced after the measure came from the Senate and returned for ratification.
“‘Yan ang pinadala sa Senado. Ngayon, ang finally lumabas na GAA, natanggal ‘yung PhilHealth fund. Nabawasan ‘yung Department of Education, nadagdagan ang public works budget (That was what was sent to the Senate. Now, when the GAA finally came out, the PhilHealth fund was removed and the DepEd’s budget was reduced while the public works budget became higher),” he explained.
The lawmaker said the 44-man National Unity Party (NUP), which he chairs, would move that the deliberations on the proposed budget for 2026 be held in abeyance until the amendments to this year’s budget law are thoroughly explained.
“Now, we want to know who changed that? How did it happen? Who really removed it? How was the PhilHealth budget removed? Because from what I know, it wasn’t done here),” he said in Filipino.
Puno said the NUP wants to know where the reductions went because the public works budget was raised. “Alam ko hindi nadagdag ‘yan dito dahil pagdating dun sa Senado, bawas ‘yun (I know it wasn’t added here because when the public works budget reached the Senate, it was already reduced by the House),” he said.
“Totoo ba ‘yung sinasabi ni Sen. (Vicente) Sotto (III) na napunta lahat ‘yan sa Senado at sa liderato ng Senado? Gusto rin namin malaman kasi ang House ang sinisisi (Is what Sen. Sotto said true? That all went to the Senate leadership? I also want to know because the House is being blamed),” he said.
“Sino ba ang nakinabang dito sa pagpalit lahat nito? Sino ang nakinabang sa pagdagdag ng DPWH budget? Ang pagdagdag ng DPWH budget ay nanggaling sa pagbawas ng DepEd at ‘yung pagtanggal ng trust fund. Napunta sa DPWH budget. Sa madaling sabi, may nakinabang doon (Who benefited from all the amendments? Who gained from increasing the DPWH budget? It came from the budget taken from DepEd and the PhilHealth trust fund. In other words, someone benefited),” Puno added.
For her part, Deputy Speaker Janette Garin of Iloilo City backed the President’s call for transparency in the P545-billion flood control program, while stressing that poor garbage disposal remains the single biggest cause of flooding in Metro Manila, Cebu, and other urban centers.
Garin said opening the books on the multi-billion-peso program “will ensure accountability and allow the public to see whether projects are delivering results.”
“We commend the President for putting transparency front and center. Let the public know where the projects are, how much was spent, and if they work. But at the same time, we have to face the deeper problem of clogged drainage because of poor garbage disposal collection,” she said.
OPEN DELIBERATIONS
At the Senate, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian yesterday sponsored Concurrent Resolution No. 4 seeking to adopt, enforce, and implement full transparency in the deliberations of the proposed 2026 national budget.
“The enactment of the national budget is one of the most critical functions of Congress. It determines how government resources are spent. It is a reflection of our national policies and directly affects the delivery of basic services to communities and families. Higit sa lahat, nagbibigay ito sa ating nga malinaw na pananaw kung saan napupunta ang ating buwis (Most of all, this gives us a clear picture where our taxes go),” Gatchalian said in his sponsorship speech.
Gatchalian, chairperson of the Committee on Finance, said he came up with the concurrent resolution after the President, during his fourth SONA, called for transparency in the budget process.
“Mr. President, we in the Senate are firmly committed to accountability and earning public trust. This concurrent resolution reflects the Senate’s commitment to that mission. Our vision for the 2026 budget is to create a budget that is effective, efficient, and lean, which will usher in a Golden Age of Transparency and Accountability that will open the budget process and empower the public to understand the budget, increase their participation, and root the system of accountability in the people themselves,” he said.
In the concurrent resolution, Gatchalian proposed that the GAB, which will be passed by the House and transmitted to the Senate, be uploaded to the websites of both houses.
He said the documents during the bicameral conference committee and joint explanation of the disagreeing votes of the Senate and the House shall likewise be uploaded in the respective websites of both houses.
“We will also urge the Department of Budget and Management, at a later time, to upload on its website duly received copies of Budget Preparation (BP) Form 201, a budget preparation for use by Philippine government agencies to submit their budget proposals to the DBM,” he added.
He also proposed that transcripts of House budget briefings, public hearings, and technical working group meetings, as well as its Committee on Appropriations report on the GAB and the journal of records of Senate plenary deliberations, be uploaded to the House website.
The Senate, on the other hand, is urged to upload to its website transcripts of its budget hearings, public hearings, and technical working group meetings, and the Committee of Finance report on the GAB, journal records of the Senate plenary deliberations, and the GAB it passed on third reading.
He said the timely and comprehensive uploading on the website, and machine-readable documents are also recommended as “this saves time and ensures that the analysis of the documents is not compromised by poor document quality.”
“Having access to these documents is vital to ensuring that the projects of each government agency are held to public account,” he also said.
