2027 budget: Tiangco wants House to undergo scrutiny

MANILA, Philippines — Tensions flared on the first day of budget talks on the proposed 2027 spending plan after Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco questioned why the House is not subject to the same scrutiny as other agencies.

At a congressional briefing by an interagency budget council, Tiangco asked: “Is there a law that exempts the House of Representatives from presenting the budget to our colleagues before it goes into plenary?”

He said the public should know how the lower chamber spent its funds in 2025 and 2026 and what factors were considered in the House’s 2027 budget proposal.

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“If there is no legal exemption or constitutional provisions that exempt the House of Representatives, we must go through exactly the same process as other departments,” Tiangco said. “The budget should be presented… if we are not hiding anything.”

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READ: Tinio flags budget ‘padding’ as vehicle for congressional insertions

Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Angela Suansing, who heads the House appropriations committee, said Tiangco’s request for the House’s budget to undergo scrutiny needs to be reviewed by the chamber’s leadership.

“We will definitely submit that for the consideration of the House leadership,” she replied, adding that the chamber “will support” Tiangco’s request if it would improve transparency in budget talks.

The House’s budget stood at P33.67 billion in 2025 and P27.02 billion in 2026. For 2027, the chamber requested P17.6 billion under the National Expenditure Program (NEP).

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Tiangco also asked the appropriations panel to provide a summary of proposed allocations to each congressional district and party-list group for the public to scrutinize the Department of Public Works and Highways allotments to them.

“If we really want transparency, why don’t we show how much the budget is per district, how much is the budget per party-list, and where it went,” he said.

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Suansing said the NEP already provides a tabulated breakdown of allotments per district engineering office and is available for review, although earmarked funds for party-list groups cannot be deduced because they do not exist.

“There is actually no way for us to be able to create a summary of what is proposed by party-list members as opposed to district representatives because there is no such thing,” she said. /mcm