Teachers, nurses, and rank-and-file government workers were “robbed” in the Senate’s version of the 2026 national budget, ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio charged Tuesday, accusing senators of slashing billions in employee benefits to bankroll pork barrel funds for local politicians.
Tinio revealed that the Senate cut the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF) by ₱55 billion, reducing it to ₱56.5 billion from Malacañang’s proposed ₱111.5 billion. He said the cuts hit the Performance-Based Bonus (PBB), staffing modifications, and funds for filling vacant positions.
At the same time, senators nearly doubled the Local Government Support Fund (LGSF) from ₱20.2 billion to ₱38.1 billion, including a ₱7.6 billion injection into the Financial Assistance to LGUs (FALGU), now at ₱16.7 billion.
“The Senate slashed funding for the benefits of teachers, health workers, and government employees, only to funnel those cuts into a massive slush fund for local patronage,” Tinio declared. “This is classic bureaucrat capitalism—robbing the workers to feed the political machinery of local dynasties.”
Tinio said senators retained “hard pork” projects like local roads, bridges, and multi-purpose halls, while opening a loophole for “Flagship Infrastructure Projects” that allows unlimited construction. “Soft pork” was also expanded to cover medical, funeral, food, transport, and education assistance, with ambulances simply rebranded as “mobile medical vehicles.”
“It is ironic that while some Senators righteously denounce the patronage-based medical assistance fund bloated by the House, their own version of the budget enables LGU officials to do the same with medical assistance, ayuda, and the like,” Tinio said. “Dapat tanggalin lahat ng pork sa budget — whether dispensed by congressmen, senators, or local government officials.”
Tinio warned the cuts will freeze the regularization of thousands of contractual workers, citing ₱15.8 billion slashed from staffing modifications and ₱2 billion cut from filling unfilled positions.
“In our State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) alone, the majority of faculty are trapped in Job Order (JO) and Contract of Service (COS) schemes with no employer-employee relationship. This budget denies them the dignity of security of tenure,” he explained.
He added that the ₱13.5 billion cut to the PBB pool will further demoralize government employees already struggling with low pay and high inflation.
“We demand the immediate restoration of the MPBF. We call on the Bicameral Conference Committee to junk the Senate’s LGU pork and restore these funds to where they belong and as originally proposed in the NEP: the salaries and benefits of our workers,” Tinio said.
“We must fund the regularization of contractuals, fill vacant plantilla positions in our schools and hospitals, and finally grant the long-overdue increase in the Personnel Economic Relief Allowance (PERA).” (RRN)
