Seize Chiz

Former Senate President Chiz Escudero’s “fake” Statement of Accounts, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN), which shows he is the poorest of his peers, will not exculpate him.

He will likely face the consequences of his involvement in the inclusion of blank items in the 2025 national budget, which were later filled in with legislators’ pet projects.

Ombudsman Boying Remulla said the chances of Escudero being charged as a result of the perversion of the 2025 budget are “quite high.”

Thus far, Remulla said, “If you really listen to the accounts on what happened to the budget, based on what has been narrated to us, he (Escudero) took over the budgetary process.”

“Escudero was the one calling the shots in the 2025 budget proceedings, sidelining even Senator Grace Poe, who was then the finance committee chairperson,” according to Remulla.

“He took over everything.”

Escudero’s indiscretion went to the extent of his paying a visit to the House of Representatives to make sure the report of the small committee — by then composed only of himself and then House appropriations panel chairperson Zaldy Co — was ironed out.

“He personally went there, there’s even a picture of him entering the House,” Remulla said.

Escudero was in charge while coordinating with Co, “making agreements,” he added.

“So yes, it was Co and Chiz who were discussing matters. That’s the narration we got, based on all indications. That’s what happened,” Remulla was definite.

The horse trading between the two schemers resulted in P182 billion in insertions in the bicameral conference committee report, which was transmitted to the Palace as the enrolled bill.

Deputy Speaker Antipolo Rep. Ronnie Puno had said that plunder was a possible charge against the two.

While plunder is hard to prove, investigators looking into how money was passed around can connect it to the insertions, which may constitute a non-bailable charge.

Malversation will be the least charge for both officials. The connection between members of Congress and contractors must also be proved to show a conspiracy for the charge to stick.

It must be proved that the money was misused, since Puno said the practice of insertion in itself is not illegal.

“Insertion itself is not a crime. In fact, that is the obligation of congressmen, which is to amend the budget in the way they see fit,” he said.

It was the abuse of the insertions and the manipulation of the budget that Escudero and his associates will have to answer for.

In the 2025 bicam report, P12 billion was taken from the Department of Education, P70 billion from PhilHealth, and allotments of several agencies were cut, all of which were moved to the DPWH. This resulted in the bloating of the latter agency’s budget to $1.1 trillion under the small committee.

The authority to allocate funds to increase the DPWH budget may have been granted by Congress, but many of the projects were either nonexistent or substandard, which points to the theft of public funds.

Chiz and Co were the enablers of the worst robbery in the budget and both should be made accountable before the rest of the gang.