Solons clash as House tackles budget

A storm is brewing in Congress as lawmakers gear up to debate the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026, even as unresolved questions continue to hound the current year’s spending program.

During Tuesday’s House flood control probe, Caloocan 2nd District Rep. Edgar Erice raised a motion to invite former senator Grace Poe and Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co, who chaired the bicameral conference committee on the 2025 budget, to shed light on alleged irregularities.

It was in this context that Davao City 3rd District Rep. Isidro Ungab doubled down on his earlier declaration that the P6.326-trillion 2025 budget was “the most corrupt budget ever passed in the history of Congress.”

“The most corrupt budget ever passed in the history of Congress. I said that,” Ungab told his colleagues, recalling how no former budget committee chair or member has moved to dispute his claim.

“Does this mean that they cannot dispute what I said, that the 2025 budget is the most corrupt budget ever passed in the history of Congress?”

Ungab’s remarks underscore a growing credibility problem for government spending at a time when the Marcos Jr. administration is asking lawmakers to approve an even larger budget for 2026 — roughly P467 billion more than this year’s record allocation.

Recto vows tighter scrutiny

Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, meanwhile, sought to reassure senators that the 2026 National Expenditure Program would be shielded from waste and corruption.

“There must be no ghost projects, no corruption, and not a single peso wasted,” Recto stressed during the Development Budget Coordination Committee briefing at the Senate.

He underscored that every peso must be spent on projects with the “highest multiplier effect” in infrastructure, education, health, agriculture and social welfare.