While the flab that will be the source of kickbacks in the 2025 national budget has been reduced, many of the pork insertions remain which makes the General Appropriations Act (GAA) favor the politicians more than the Filipino people.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vetoed P194 billion worth of items in the 2025 GAA but only P26 billion worth of pork removed actually mattered.

University of the Philippines School of Economics professor Cielo Magno, a former undersecretary at the Department of Finance, said the veto of P168 billion in unprogrammed appropriations had no impact on the fiscal space because there was no budget allocation for them.

What was significant in the veto was the P26 billion removed from items in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) budget.

The GAA despite the vetoed items remained a pro-politician instead of a pro-people budget.

This was reflected in the DPWH budget that was inflated beyond what the agency had proposed.

Magno noticed that in the bicameral conference committee, the legislators increased the DPWH budget by P288 billion. Thus, even with the P26 billion vetoed, most of the insertions remained.

While they increased the budget of the DPWH, some flagship projects such as airports, highways and railways were transferred to the unprogrammed appropriations.

“Thus, they have no guarantee of funding. So the question that is being asked is why is this happening?” Magno said.

She asked: “Are our officials that incompetent that the legislators cannot coordinate their priorities with the economic goals of the executive branch?”

She noted that the seeming collusion to bastardize the budget was the same thing that happened in 2024.

“This was the same issue with the 2024 budget where they transferred big infra projects, technically funded with loans that could not be implemented unless the government came up with a counterpart fund,” Magno recalled.

“These included payments for eminent domain or properties that had to be compensated for the projects to proceed. Placing these projects in the unprogrammed appropriations means they have no guaranteed funding,” she said.

“We could have immediately implemented these projects if these were placed under the DPWH’s guaranteed funds but now that the budget is signed, the pressure is on the Department of Finance to find the money to finance the unprogrammed appropriations,” Magno pointed out.

The effort to take funds from government-owned and -controlled corporations — such as the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation — directly resulted in key infrastructure projects being moved to the unprogrammed items.

“Priority was given to small-scale projects inserted by politicians in the budget,” Magno noted.

A look at the P26-billion items vetoed by the President shows these are small-scale such as flood control and multipurpose building projects, which Magno said were insertions at the district level.

In contrast, the projects in the unprogrammed appropriations include bridges interconnecting island provinces, airports, and the Metro Manila subway.

“So it is mind-boggling that our politicians would prioritize community projects over big infrastructure projects with a national impact,” the UP economist averred.

From a political perspective, Magno said, “We know why this is happening since it’s an election year.”

Consider the misplaced priorities in the annual budget, and Filipinos will find the answer to why the country has become a laggard in the region when it comes to infrastructure and social services.