Senate to probe P100 billion insertions in 2025 budget

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate will look into former congressman Zaldy Co’s claim that some P100 billion worth of projects were inserted into the 2025 national budget, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said yesterday.

Stressing that he was not privy to decisions surrounding the 2025 budget despite being vice chairman of the finance committee last year, Gatchalian said that he has begun gathering documents to get to the bottom of the supposed insertions.

“I really don’t know how it went. However, I’m still looking into it. I’m gathering documents and investigating it. But in terms of detail, physically, I wasn’t there,” Gatchalian told radio dzBB, stressing that he could not give conclusions ahead of time without reviewing the details.

In a video statement, Co accused President Marcos and former speaker Martin Romualdez of engineering the P100-billion insertions in the 2025 national budget and claimed he never benefited from the scheme.

He also published a list of proposed projects that Marcos allegedly requested to be inserted into the bicameral conference committee.

Co, who has been in hiding after being implicated in testimonies identifying him as one of the alleged masterminds of kickbacks and flood-control insertions, urged the ombudsman and the Senate to investigate the matter.

Gatchalian questioned the credibility of Co’s allegations, saying several details “don’t match” the way the budget process works.