Lethal bicam mafia
These items are fixed, but their use was manipulated in a way similar to making the blank items appear in the 2025 budget.
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These items are fixed, but their use was manipulated in a way similar to making the blank items appear in the 2025 budget.
After blowing the lid off the blank budget items that stirred a hornet’s nest, Davao City Rep. Sid Ungab has found evidence of more irregularities in the 2025 General Appropriations Act — which will cement its description as being the most corrupt ever.
Ungab divulged in a privilege speech another offense committed in the bicameral conference committee (Bicam) involving the brazen maneuver to generate a “pork barrel.”
Ungab described the potential scandal that had escaped public scrutiny and was never openly deliberated on by either the House or the Senate as the automatic appropriations that contained items that did not require legislative enactment.
Since the automatic appropriations were not part of the computation on the final amount of the budget, adjusting it would not result in a violation of the Constitution’s provision that “Congress shall in no case increase the appropriation of any project or program of any department, bureau, agency, or office of government over the amount submitted by the President in his budget proposal.”
These items are fixed, but their use was manipulated in a way as to make the blank items appear in the 2025 budget.
Ungab explained that the P6.352-trillion 2025 budget was made up of new appropriations worth P4.247 trillion and automatic appropriations of P2.105 trillion.
Additionally, there were proposed unprogrammed appropriations of $158.67 billion as contingent items that would be released only when revenue collections exceeded the target outlined in the budget of expenditures and sources of financing (BESF).
The other precondition was to source new revenues outside the BESF, and finally through loans for foreign-assisted projects.
“I believe that certain adjustments made to the budget raise serious legal questions and may be vulnerable to constitutional challenge,” according to Ungab.
Ungab also exposed an anomaly in the bicam regarding the 2025 GAA that contained 28 blank items spanning 13 pages that were mysteriously filled in the enrolled bill.
Under the automatic appropriations were items such as the retirement and life insurance premiums of state employees, the interest on national government debts, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao block grants, and the pensions of ex-presidents and their spouses.
Ungab said that for 2025, the earmarked revenues amounted to P1.202 trillion that would be sourced from the general fund of P1.175 trillion and special accounts of P27.352 billion.
As part of the budgetary process, special accounts in the general fund and all the other automatic appropriations do not require legislative action.
“Throughout my 15 years of service in this house, the items classified under automatic appropriations have remained intact. These appropriations have been consistently recognized and respected by the House,” the former chairperson of the appropriations panel said.
The automatic appropriations must not be subjected to alteration or amendment as they constitute nondiscretionary obligations.
Automatic appropriations were raised by 47 percent in the GAA compared to the National Expenditure Program (NEP), including a P12.75-billion hike in the Special Account in the General Fund (SAGF). This contravenes the statutory framework governing automatic appropriations, which are meant to be insulated from discretionary changes by the bicam.
The act bypassed the protections designed to prevent the political manipulation of funds and such actions could be deemed unconstitutional.
The bicam’s ability to inflate appropriations beyond the President’s original submission undermines the executive’s fiscal planning and the deliberative process in Congress, which is meant to align with national priorities.
Magical pork had been conjured up twice in the 2025 appropriations through the notorious bicam syndicate.
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