Lacson flags P46-B DPWH realignment, cites ‘pork’ risk
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Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Wednesday vowed to closely scrutinize the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) proposed 2026 budget, particularly the P46 billion in realignments reportedly made by the House of Representatives for “ayuda” or social assistance programs.
Lacson raised concerns over the sudden increase in funding for social amelioration programs, at the expense of infrastructure projects, especially flood control initiatives that were previously flagged for corruption.
“We expect the House version of the General Appropriations Bill to be transmitted to us soon. We will compare this House version of the budget bill with the National Expenditure Program to check which items got a spike in funding,” Lacson said in a radio interview.
House of Representatives’ realignments reportedly redirected P32.6 billion to the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) and P14.82 billion to Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD). This pushed the proposed 2026 AICS budget to P59.5 billion, and the TUPAD budget to P26.9 billion.
The DPWH had earlier slashed its proposed 2026 budget to P625.7 billion, scrapping all locally funded flood control projects and removing corruption-prone items like road re-blocking and road stud installations.
Lacson stressed the importance of fiscal discipline and transparency, especially in the wake of recent controversies involving questionable infrastructure allocations, and long after the 2013 pork barrel scandal linked to Janet Napoles.
"We should be horrified by what happened. Let's not allow the problem to linger. Let us also help find ways to bring down our debt because our debt has grown so big,” Lacson said.
The senator urged fellow lawmakers to practice restraint when proposing budget realignments, warning that unchecked discretion could again open the door to wasteful or corrupt spending.
“We have barely recovered from the Napoles scandal when we got hit by the controversy over flood control projects. What's next?,” he said.
The Senate is expected to begin deliberations on the DPWH’s proposed budget in October. Lacson said he intends to focus on the budget deliberations.
