Senators should explain P24-billion ‘leadership fund’ – Abante

MANILA, Philippines — Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. on Sunday said senators should explain how the supposed P24-billion “leadership fund” was allocated to them in the 2025 national budget.

Abante made the call after former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan revealed the Senate leadership fund during a Sandiganbayan hearing last Wednesday on the plunder and graft case against former Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr.

READ: Bonoan: ‘All senators’ got share of ‘leadership fund’

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“We need to carefully examine what the leadership fund entails,” he said in Filipino.

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“The proper questions should be like, what particular appropriation are we talking about? Where does it appear in the budget, when was this introduced, anong public purpose nito, what was its public purpose and which agency implemented it,” he added.

Abante also pointed out that senators should also explain whether a senator exercised control over the fund after the enactment of the budget—especially since no such fund can be found in the House of Representatives.

“I served as vice chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, but we didn’t have a leadership fund like that,” he added.

In his judicial affidavit, Bonoan claimed that the P24-billion leadership fund was included in the 2025 DPWH budget.

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He said he discussed the “parameters” of the fund with then Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and that they agreed each senator would be allocated at least P500 million, with chairpersons of major committees getting up to P1 billion.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson previously described the alleged leadership fund as “worse than (the congressional) pork barrel.” /mcm