by Diego Morra
Budget watchdog Social Watch Philippines (SWP) is puzzled by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s decision to retain all programmed funds that resemble pork barrel which can be used to worsen the already despicable disbursement of taxpayer money for private political patronage.
SWP co-convenor Dr. Ma. Victoria Raquiza said her group urged the President to veto ₱319-billion in pork barrel and questionable programmed allocations like the ₱81.94-billion increase in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Basic Infrastructure Program and Sustainable Infrastructure projects, the ₱10-billion Department of Agriculture (DA) Presidential Assistance for Farmers and Fisherfolk program, the ₱8.9-billion Farm-to-Market Roads (FMRs, the ₱15-billion disaster assistance funds for Local Government Units (LGUs), ₱56.873 billion in support funds to the Local Government Units, the ₱2.7-billion Tulong Dunong Program under the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the ₱5-billion in confidential funds.
Raquiza noted that individually and collectively, these items either overlap or duplicate existing agency budgets or were last-minute insertions that did not pass through public scrutiny or undergone in the two chambers of Congress, making all of them sub rosa and absolutely questionable from the standpoint of legitimate people’s oversight. Both SWP and the Makabayan Coalition condemned the insertions as the hijacking of a legitimate budgetary process that guarantees the purloining of people’s money for political dynasties and the pockets of legislative privateers. It now seems that the livestreaming of the bicam reconciliation process was all for show, a concession to organizations like SWP that had demanded for years that the state abide by the constitutional mandate for it to craft budgets that promote the people’s weal, not the pelf of lawmakers and bureaucrats.
Dismayed by the fertility of the pork barrel schemers, three Makabayan Coalition lawmakers rejected the 2026 budget as a wrong financial instrument that will never assuage the public’s condemnation of Congress, Malacanang and government agencies for crafting a budget annually that disrespects the Supreme Court (SC) decision in 2013 to ban the pork barrel in whatever form. Talk of the 2026 budget being stripped of its lard for politicians is akin to how Francois de La Rochefoucauld described hypocrisy as “the tribute vice pays to virtue.” Chipping away a mere ₱90 billion from the budget bill does not absolve it of being privy to a monumental error that rewards incorrigible moneymakers in the two congressional chambers despite their mortal sins.
For instance, Makabayan Coalition argued, instead of heeding the clamor for Congress to show fiscal judiciousness, it increased the “ayuda” funds to a whopping ₱138-billion from the original proposal in the National Expenditure Program (NEP.) If this were the response to public uproar, then it means patronage politics is not only alive and well even if may soon be destined to the seventh circle of hell in Dante’s Inferno. The President should, forthwith, explain to the people why he did not veto this item. The people should demand that the President be compelled to clarify his executive actions under as regular Question Hour.
“Our main call was to veto problematic budget items mostly found in the programmed funds, where funding is assured in the General Appropriations Act (GAA), making them ripe for corruption and political patronage. Unfortunately, our call was not heeded by the President,” Raquiza rued. SWP also questioned the retention of the ₱50-billion Revised Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Modernization Program, which duplicates funding already provided under the ₱40-billion Special Purpose Funds (SPF). Both the unprogrammed appropriations (UA) and SPF are highly discretionary funds under the President’s control. For next year, Marcos Jr. will be free to juggle or fiddle with ₱90-billion in discretionary funds for the AFP Modernization Program.
Some budget items under UA which the President vetoed are worth supporting. Marcos vetoed possible funding to promote an important program on industrial policy, namely, the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) Fiscal Support Arrearages for Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) program and Revitalizing the Automotive Industry for Competitiveness Enhancement (RACE) Program. SWP lamented that funding for DTI’s automotive industry program was deprioritized by Congress by transferring it from the NEP to the UA and eventually killed by the President. “It is deeply frustrating that many of the line-item vetoes that we proposed were ignored by the President despite clear red flags such as last-minute insertions, duplications, and the absence of implementation safeguards,” said Raquiza.
SWP stressed that these allocations contradict the administration’s commitment to transparency and accountability. “This was a missed opportunity for the President to protect public funds and show leadership against brazen corruption and patronage politics,” Raquiza lamented. Dr. Liza Martinez of the Philippine Alliance of Persons with Chronic Illnesses (PAPCI), and a member of the SWP–Alternative Budget Initiative (ABI) called for a stronger public vigilance, as the administration’s failure to veto these programs amounts to an endorsement of corruption. It is now evident that for all its protestations in weeding out graft, that Malacanang dog still won’t hunt.
