House leaders defend 2027 budget amendments amid questions over project details

House leaders on Monday defended the amendments made by the chamber to the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget for 2027, saying these were purportedly based on agency proposals and had been made on valid grounds.

House appropriations panel Senior Vice Chair Albert Garcia of Bataan and Deputy Speaker Ronnie Puno of Antipolo made the statements amid criticisms from civil society organizations and opposition lawmakers over projects allegedly bearing questionable documentation and incorrect coordinates.

“These [amendments made by House members] are validated projects from the agency. You cannot make amendments in the GAB (General Appropriations Bill) with a project that is not validated by the DA (Department of Agriculture), DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) and so forth,” Garcia said at a press conference.

Garcia urged critics to identify the projects with questionable coordinates, saying these could be checked and corrected if necessary. He said the cited errors might have resulted from typographical mistakes in the voluminous budget documents.

“Context changes everything. Kung may mga nakikitang mga projects na mali, 'yung mga coordinates, maganda ma-identify natin para ma-check natin. At kung kailangan i-rectify, i-rectify ho natin. Maaaring nagkaroon ng typographical error because of the voluminous documents," he said.

(If there are erroneous entries, we ask them to identify the projects involved so we can correct them. These could also be typographical errors.)

"Maybe if the People's Budget Coalition can be more specific with the projects involved, so we can validate them. Because if we don’t have the list of these projects, we cannot validate them,” Garcia added.

Asked whether he meant that the House had nothing to do with the incorrect coordinates, Garcia replied, “Of course.”

“In our case, these farm-to-market roads, including those in our amendments, were validated by provincial agriculturists, municipal agriculturists and the regional office of the DA. These are validated roads,” Garcia added.

Garcia was reacting to pronouncements by the People’s Budget Coalition, which questioned the inclusion of thousands of infrastructure projects in the House-approved budget, saying many lacked publicly available supporting documents, including programs of work and certifications of implementability.

The group also flagged farm-to-market road projects whose coordinates reportedly pointed to bodies of water, as well as concerns over project costs and the alignment of some projects with infrastructure master plans.

In a separate finding, the coalition said the House added billions of pesos for multipurpose buildings and local access roads while reducing funding for foreign-assisted infrastructure projects.

No lump-sum allocations

Puno, meanwhile, said lawmakers based their amendments on agency proposals and consultations with their constituents, adding that Congress reviews rather than originates the national budget.

“People should know that Congress does not create the budget. Agencies submit their budget to us, and we're just reviewing what has already been submitted to us. If there is an error, we’ll correct it. [This means] if they give us a lump-sum amount and they don't give us individual details on that, of course, we are going to flag it,” Puno said.

He clarified that lawmakers could not insert projects into the budget supposedly without the concerned agency’s clearance.

“If we can give the details [of the project], of course, we will give it. And when the appropriations committee ‘inserts’ things there, they cannot do it without the clearance of the agency because there is even an additional safeguard that is created by the agencies, particularly public works," Puno said.

"All of those requirements will be submitted to them prior to implementation,” he added.

Puno said the safeguards required before a project can be approved include:

• Accurate project coordinates
• Approval from the regional development council
• Consent from the local government, among other requirements

“What are we worried about? I do not agree with everything that is in that budget, but I respect the people who did it. We will give them the proper recognition for whatever work they put into it and whatever mistakes they have committed, the Senate can correct,” Puno said.

“But you cannot throw in blanket accusations that really speak to nothing,” he added.

Puno said the DPWH's proposed 2027 budget, as submitted to the House, contained lump-sum allocations. He said the House addressed this by specifying the intended purposes of the funds.

“Congress had to fill up the blanks because what was submitted to us were lump sums, and this was balanced out by the DPWH issuing certain regulations and requirements that prevented the arbitrary inclusion of the projects,” Puno said.— MCG, GMA News

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