Cleaning up the yearly budget process and reducing the pork fat in it must start with Congress, beginning with making the deliberations of the Bicameral Conference Committee (Bicam) transparent.

In the recent controversy that resulted in the filing of a complaint challenging the validity of the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), the Bicam report was pinpointed as the source of suspected manipulations for pork insertions.

The blank items in the report were deduced to be where additional fund juggling occurred to make way for pet projects, mostly by members of the House of Representatives.

Former senator Franklin Drilon, who has been a legislator for 24 years, said that as many as 30 members of the House of Representatives are included in the panel of the chamber when the Bicam starts.

Most of the delegates are there to monitor their pork insertions.

“It is ideal to make the Bicam process transparent, but it has been a tradition that a small committee is constituted to look into the proposed budget.”

The process of amending the budget in the bicam is done through a public hearing, but a small group undertakes the final touches on the budget behind closed doors, which is when the maneuvers happen.

The small committee is constituted to avoid the bicam members, stacked with members of the House, from intervening and delaying the process, according to Drilon.

“Opening the final process in the Bicam to the public is not necessarily the solution because, I tell you, there are many ways of skinning a cat, as they say,” he added.

The budget, as it is designed now, is a politicians’ budget, as Drilon said the legislators went overboard with the insertions.

“Imagine, moving a critical program that was approved by the Cabinet and recommended by economic managers to maintain the growth momentum, to unprogrammed appropriation to make way for a farm-to-market road. This budget was mangled beyond recognition by economic managers.”

A proposal from the seasoned member of the legislature is to remove the capability of Congress members to exploit the pork barrel to get an elected position.

He said that pork barrel can be a tool for the improvement of a particular community if it is not pocketed or used for image building.

Drilon had proposed classifying all Congress-introduced amendments in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) during an election year as “for later release” or FLR.

“The budget should not be a tool in aid of elections,” Drilon said.

In the proposal, delaying the release of the funds for the pet projects of legislators could “prevent the budget from being perceived as a tool for election-related spending.”

It would also be in aid of the spirit of the Omnibus Election Code, which prohibits the release, disbursement, or expenditure of public funds for public works, as well as the delivery of construction materials, starting 28 March or 45 days before election day.

FLR was practiced by the Department of Budget and Management during the previous administration.

Congress-introduced amendments that are not part of the President’s National Expenditure Program, under the principle, are classified as FLR, requiring compliance with specific conditions before funds are released.

In the 2025 GAA, huge amounts of pork barrel were specifically meant for the elections.

While P26 billion worth of Department of Public Works and Highways projects were vetoed, P263.9 billion in congressional insertions were retained.

Drilon estimated the overall amount of insertions across the budget remained significant at P347 billion.

With only P26 billion reverted to the Treasury, only that amount is available to restore funding for de-funded projects in the National Expenditure Program, Drilon said.

He added that it is unlikely that key deductions, such as the P74.4-billion Philippine Health Insurance Corp. subsidy and the P50-billion Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) allocation, will be restored.

Cleaning up the budget process, thus, requires the exercise of willpower among the elected officials to hold back their craving for pork.