MANILA, Philippines — Congressmen under the administration coalition have refuted statements of budget watchdogs that the appropriations bill passed by the House of Representatives contained about P1 trillion in “insertions.”
“From my recollection, in fact it’s only about P190 billion, and these were not insertions. Most of these were institutional amendments from agencies based on the bottom-up budgeting, which means all these are needs-based from the ground,” Rep. Albert Garcia of Bataan told reporters in a briefing.
The stalwart of the National Unity Party later rectified this figure to about P115 billion after consulting his colleagues, including Reps. Arnie Fuentebella, Romeo Momo Sr., Janice Degamo and Brian Poe.
“As you know, we take care of both the micro and macro needs of our constituents. It’s very easy to make sweeping statements, but as we always say, ‘context changes everything.’ We welcome criticisms, but please give us specifics, and if we’re wrong, we will rectify,” Garcia stressed.
“It is the representatives who know better the problems on the ground,” Garcia added, defending budget allocations for the need to increase the current 4,000 multipurpose buildings across the country, which only comprises 10 percent of the Philippines’ 42,000 barangays.
Garcia sits as senior vice chairman of the House committee on appropriations, whose chairperson – Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing – has just given birth in late October.
The lawmakers clarified that allocations that have been reduced, significantly or not, were only those that have zero or very low absorptive capacity, citing as instance the transfer of additional funds to Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Quick Response Fund, precisely because the original fund remained untouched.
Fuentebella, a Camarines Sur congressman representing the Nationalist People’s Coalition, declared categorically there are “no more insertions” in the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget for 2027, insisting this is “one of the reforms made by the 20th Congress under Speaker Faustino Dy III.”
“We are the only bridge of the local (officials) to the national (leadership). Let’s try to look at MPBs in a positive way. These are not just being built upon the whims and caprices of lawmakers like us,” he explained, noting MPB’s utilitarian role, like evacuation sites during disasters.
Momo – a Nacionalista Party stalwart from Surigao del Sur – defended the House’s decision to remove some of the original budget allocations in foreign-assisted projects, saying these were not all ready for implementation to begin with.
“Many of them have not yet even reached the procurement stage, the implementation stage and are still idle. And believe me it may either take three to five years before these can be carried out,” the chairman of the House committee on public works said.
“So, we really have to strip them (FAPs) and it is just right to reduce the allocations,” Momo said.
The former Department of Public Works and Highways official stressed that transparency should not be confused with equal funding for all congressional districts, since their needs vary according to population, geography and exposure to natural disasters.
“We believe that there is no equal allocation in each district. Nothing is equal really. There are districts that are simply too big. Some are very prone to typhoons and earthquakes, some have many river systems,” Momo pointed out.
Poe – a neophyte congressman representing FPJ Panday Bayanihan party-list – said, “We’re just trying to be fiscally responsible here. We’re not being negligent. I just don’t want people to have the impression that these were removed heartlessly by us without any reason.
“So, let’s not be alarmist here. We have to be responsible. Let’s get our numbers right,” the son of former senator Grace Poe said.
As a concrete example, Poe cited the case of the Disaster Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Assistance Program under the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund, which had P15.33 billion in unused allocations as of June 30.
He said the unused allocation became a basis for a proposed amendment increasing the QRF of the DSWD and Department of Agriculture.
Online platform
Speaker Dy said the House would launch an online platform giving the public access to project data and directed the oversight committees to convene immediately to review how funds allocated for 2026 were spent.
“We want our people to have access to accurate information and this transparency platform delivers a loud and clear message: the House is not hiding anything,” Dy said in his opening speech at the resumption of plenary sessions.
Dy said the platform would publish information on the projects of each lawmaker, including the project name, location, funding allocation and completion status.
He said work on the platform began in September and would be available to the public in the coming days.