Watchdogs urge Senate to strip House 'insertions' in pork-riddled 2027 budget

MANILA, Philippines — More than a year after the flood control scandal prompted promises of a cleaner budget, watchdogs told the Senate on Monday, October 26, that over P1 trillion of the 2027 spending plan remains open to political patronage.

More than two-thirds of that amount, P695 billion, is in infrastructure, the People’s Budget Coalition (PBC) said at a hearing today by the Senate finance panel. 

This amount includes about 6,200 public works projects worth P172 billion that the House reportedly inserted without publishing supporting documents, the group said based on their partial "risk analysis" of the budget.

“Ang worry po namin, hindi pa rin po natututo o nahihiya ang Kamara sa kabila ng lahat ng pagma-march at rally namin. Sa kabila ng sigaw ng taong bayan, hindi pa rin natauhan,” said Ken Abante, a co-convenor of the group. 

(Our worry is that the House still has not learned, or felt any shame, despite all our marches and rallies. Despite the people’s outcry, it still has not come to its senses.)

By default, projects without supporting documents should be struck down by the Senate or vetoed by the president, the group said.

"Sa budget na pinaghirapang buwis ng taong bayan bawal magka-typo (A budget built from taxpayers' money should not have typographical mistakes)," Abante said.

It's the second year in a row that the Senate finance committee set aside a hearing for civil society groups on the national budget, a practice Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian began in October 2025 when he chaired the panel.  

Groups at Monday’s hearing told senators the 2027 budget still favors pork-type allocations over basic services. 

The House version of the General Appropriations Bill, according to the groups, includes deep cuts to health, education and agriculture, while prioritizing aid programs that require referral letters from lawmakers. 

The Senate aims to open floor debate on its version of the 2026 budget in the week of November 9.

Projects plotted at sea?

There are P1 trillion in "red flags" in the proposed 2027 budget, the People's Budget Coalition said based on their analysis.

The coalition put the largest share of its estimate, P695 billion, under "hard pork," or politically driven infrastructure. 

Another P210 billion is "soft pork," mostly aid that flows through lawmakers' referrals, and P112 billion is "shadow pork," the standby funds known as unprogrammed appropriations.

Together, these make up about one in every seven pesos of the P7.2-trillion budget. 

Among the projects flagged by the coalition are the more than 350 farm-to-market roads worth nearly P6 billion that the House had inserted in the Department of Agriculture's budget.

Coordinates listed for some of those roads fall in the Celebes Sea and in the Philippine Rise, formerly Benham Rise, an undersea region off Luzon's eastern coast, Abante said.

Some buildings appeared to plot to Algeria and Nigeria, he added.

In the Department of Health, the House added more than 180 health facilities worth over P2 billion while cutting the overall budget for health facilities.

The National Irrigation Administration received more than 200 new irrigation projects worth over P7 billion, some based on questionable cost estimates, Abante added.

Across all agencies, the coalition counted nearly 7,000 House-added projects worth P190 billion with no published project attachments. Many of the public works projects are multipurpose buildings, Abante said.

"Hindi po namin sinasabi na katiwalian ang lahat ng ito. Kailangan po natin ng imprastrukturang ito pero sana maayos," he said. (We are not saying all of this is corruption. We need this infrastructure, but it should be done right.) 

Abante said the House was repeating the "modus operandi" of insertions under former Speaker Martin Romualdez and former House appropriations panel chair Elizaldy Co.

Romualdez was arrested on September 7 on a P7.4-billion plunder charge before the Sandiganbayan over flood control projects, a case in which Co is also accused. Romualdez has denied any wrongdoing.

The House made its amendments through its Budget Amendments and Review Subcommittee, which replaced the appropriations panel's small committee long criticized for creating pork insertions behind closed doors.

Insertions by district

Based on the General Appropriations Billl approved by the House, Ilocos Norte's 1st District received the largest House insertions at P4.375 billion, more than twice the next-highest, Misamis Occidental's 2nd District, at P1.8 billion.

Davao de Oro's 2nd District and Isabela's 4th District followed at P1.7 billion each, then South Cotabato's 2nd District at P1.6 billion.

Abante said the amounts were allocated through DPWH district engineering offices and he did not attribute these to the lawmakers representing the districts.

Ilocos Norte's 1st District is represented by Rep. Sandro Marcos, the president's eldest son.

Aid by referral

The House nearly doubled funding for five aid programs, to P137 billion from the P72 billion that the executive proposed, said AJ Montesa, another co-convenor of the group.

The programs include Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS), which gives emergency cash aid, and Medical Assistance for Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP), which helps pay hospital bills.

Aid under these programs often requires a guarantee or referral letter from a lawmaker's office, which in effect reserves the funds for individual legislators, Montesa said.

He said the coalition's national coordinator, who was due to speak, could not attend because her mother had recently been diagnosed with cancer.

When she brought her mother home from the emergency room on October 11, the bill for chemotherapy complications came to P77,000, of which PhilHealth covered P11,000. She wrote to politicians' offices for a guarantee letter but received none, Montesa said.

The coalition said the House cut funds for health promotion, immunization and health facilities to enlarge MAIFIP.

"So it seems that the House wants us to get more sick so that we can beg more for our hospital bills," Montesa said.

If the country were to operate on the budget approved by the House "as is," there could be another corruption scandal similar to the irregularities exposed in the Department of Public Works and Highways' flood control works, Abante said. 

“Night and day po talaga ‘yung pakiramdam naming budget advocates between the House and the Senate,” Abante said, thanking senators for listening to the groups’ calls for reform. (For us budget advocates, the House and the Senate really feel like night and day.)

In September, the coalition complained that civil society representatives were given only three minutes to speak at the House’s People’s Budget Review.