SCUTTLEBUTT

In the escalating online storm over “nepo babies,” the offspring of thieves in high places flaunting their ill-gotten wealth, a new figure has emerged — a top-level government executive whose spending is beyond her pay grade.

A communications department head in a government agency, a mid-level role, she brazenly shows off her luxury jewelry and bags on social media.

In her posts, she flaunts Bulgari and Tiffany necklaces, as well as exorbitantly priced Hermès handbags, raising eyebrows about the source of her funds.

“Check her official accounts—she’s not hiding it,” one insider remarked. “How can someone afford to be glitzy on a government salary?”

The official is purportedly the former girlfriend of a high-profile ex-Cabinet secretary, fueling whispers of deep connections to power and wealth.

“When the money rained down, she caught more than her share. Lucky indeed,” Nosy Tarsee was told.

The official has attracted the attention of socmed junkies against the backdrop of the national fury over the P545-billion flood control scandal, where 15 contractors and their political overlords are believed to have pocketed billions of pesos worth of flood control projects that were poorly, barely, or never built at all, leaving long-suffering Filipinos vulnerable to deadly floods.

Social media is ablaze with “lifestyle checks” on these nepo babies, documenting their clothes, cars, bling, and jets, all bankrolled with stolen taxpayer pesos.

As the probes start on the thievery of the contractors—that has snared their congressional sponsors—this communication official’s sparkle stands out, a symbol of unchecked privilege in a nation drowning in floodwaters of discontent. DT

Hideous bicam monster

A House member who was in the bicameral conference committee related to Nosy Tarsee how the 2025 national budget was mangled, resulting in the grotesque document that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed as the General Appropriations Act.

The legislator said this year’s budget would serve as the template for avoiding pork barrel abuses in the 2026 budget.

He said it was the bicameral conference committee (bicam) that created, behind closed doors, the Frankenstein monster of 2025—the estimated P860.5 billion in total adjustments to the P6.352-trillion budget.

The juggling involved the reallocation of P487.5 billion from underfunded or reduced programs to priority areas such as infrastructure, and augmentations via unprogrammed appropriations (UAs) of an additional P373 billion.

The bicam increased the UAs significantly, but the President vetoed P168.24 billion of this to prevent misuse. UAs are contingency funds released only if new revenue materializes or if the government is able to secure loans.

The contested P142.7 billion were last-minute additions during the bicam, described as “pork barrel” or patronage projects that favored allies of Senate President Francis Escudero and other bicam members.

These were not explicitly itemized in public bicam reports but appeared in the final reconciled General Appropriations Bill.

The full P288.6 billion augmentation included the bicam insertions, as well as other congressionally approved enhancements for national infrastructure priorities.

To avoid violating the constitutional prohibition on increasing the amount beyond the President’s proposal, the bicam placed “blank items” in its report, which were later filled in the enrolled bill and reallocated with cuts in other sectors.

Some adjustments were made post-ratification by the House and Senate, raising questions about who authorized them.

Then came the complicity of the DBM, which performed its role of rationalizing the final makeup of the budget in which the DPWH allocations exceeded that for education, violating Article XIV, Section 5(5) of the Constitution.

The DBM computed the total education budget, including its attached agencies, at P1.055 trillion, compared to DPWH’s budget of P1.088 trillion, which included items such as salary differentials from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund.

Some of the congressmen contested this, claiming it was “earmarking” to skirt the law.

The many Dr. Frankensteins in the Executive and Legislative branches must be blocked to prevent the 2026 budget from turning into a clone of another wretched creature.