SCUTTLEBUTT

Pork with Chiz overload

A member of a group of former Cabinet officials provided Nosy Tarsee with a rundown of how the 2025 national budget was trampled upon and exploited for pork barrel in the final or enrolled version submitted to and eventually signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Despite line item vetoes, the insertions remained largely intact in the P6.326-trillion budget while essential social services were defunded.

The budget retained at least P288 billion in pork barrel, consisting of a P262-billion additional budget for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for flood control projects, and P26 billion for the straight cash dole Ayuda Para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP), while displacing essential services, including P74 billion from PhilHealth; P76 billion from various social program priorities that included support for health facilities, social welfare, technical and vocational education;

P50.4 billion from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps); P26.9 billion from the Commission on Higher Education; P14 billion from State Universities and Colleges; P5 billion from DepEd’s computerization program; P5 billion from the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund; P2 billion from the Marawi Siege Compensation Program; P2 billion from public health emergency benefits and allowances for healthcare and non-healthcare workers; P1 billion from social pensions for indigent senior citizens; P1 billion from the Pambansang Pabahay Para sa Pilipino Program; P500 million from the community mortgage finance program of Social Housing Finance Corp; and unspecified amounts of counterpart funding in foreign-assisted projects.

The official whispered to Tarsee, “The generous allocations for several items in the Department of Public Works and Highways were unmistakably pork barrel in nature, prioritized at the expense of critical essential services.”

Wanton pork barrel spending leads to the misallocation of resources, inefficiency, and wastage of public funds absent adequate oversight and planning. It fosters corruption and political favoritism, undermining public trust and resulting in unbalanced development.

The bonanza was requested by legislators and approved by the bicameral conference committee led by Senator Chiz Escudero in preparation for the 2025 midterm polls. This decision turned the 2024 and 2025 national budgets into the worst in the government’s fiscal history.