House Deputy Minority Leader Edgar Erice on Monday accused the previous Congress of enabling what he described as a “grand conspiracy” behind the alleged P1.45-trillion budget insertions, saying that such a massive kickback scheme could not have happened without the knowledge and consent of both the House and the Senate leadership then under former Speaker Martin Romualdez and ex-Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

“P1.45 trillion of insertions, diversions, and amendments. Speaker Romualdez and Senate President Chiz Escudero, and the senators and congressmen could not possibly be unaware of it,” the Caloocan lawmaker said in an interview. “This doesn’t actually happen. This is unprecedented.”

The amount pertained to the total of the purported insertions made by members of Congress to the 2023, 2024, and 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) or national budget, which resulted in big-ticket projects of the Marcos administration being defunded and derailed.

These included the Metro Manila Subway and the expanded Philippine National Railways, or the North-South Commuter Railway, whose funding were gutted in recent budgets to make room for the congressional insertions.

Erice was not a member of the last 19th Congress, but posited that lawmakers from both chambers reached a consensus not to contest the contents of the budgets in exchange for their amendments.

“I’m certain they discussed how much the insertions of the Senate and the House would be. That’s why they signed it because the House and the Senate had their respective insertions,” he said.

Escudero has repeatedly denied the alleged insertions, calling the allegations a demolition job. Romualdez, meanwhile, had yet to respond to requests for comment.

Amendments too far

A 103-page document obtained by Vera Files, a non-profit organization that fact-checks media reports, showed the Senate had more than P142 billion worth of bicameral insertions in the 2025 GAA, with a big chunk of the amount allegedly linked to Escudero.

Meanwhile, Senator Panfilo Lacson, also not a member of the previous Congress, said the House’s amendments to this year’s budget went far beyond those made by the Senate.

The 2025 GAA has been widely criticized for allegedly featuring bloated unprogrammed appropriations (UA), to which the flood control projects were reportedly charged.

Funds worth P141 billion to bankroll flood control projects in 2023 and 2024 were also allegedly drawn from the UA, which has been at the center of a sweeping corruption probe involving members of Congress, DPWH officials, and private contractors.

The UA are standby funds that can only be tapped when the government collects more revenue than expected, or when grants and foreign funds are available. Typically, the UA is invoked for emergencies or when infrastructure projects, social aid programs, and other similar initiatives are required.

The 2025 GAA was initially pegged at P6.352 trillion but it was subsequently reduced to P6.326 trillion after President Marcos vetoed P194 billion worth of line items deemed inconsistent with his administration’s priority programs, including P16.7 billion for flood control.

The UA, deemed by opposition lawmakers as a conduit for corruption, had swelled disproportionately since 2023 — Marcos’ first full year in office — topping nearly P2 trillion, although P168.2 billion was reportedly part of the vetoed items in the 2025 GAA.

Erice and his colleagues in the minority have vigorously called for the abolition of the UA in the 2026 budget, but the House recently passed the General Appropriations Bill, retaining the P243 in standby funds.

Escudero, Co as ‘masterminds’

Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno earlier pointed to Escudero and ousted Ako Bicol Representative Elizaldy Co as the culprits behind the massive insertions in this year’s GAA, accusing them of “pencil[ing] in whatever needed to be penciled in” in the budget version of the so-called small committee.

Escudero and Co allegedly made up the small committee of the bicam, along with Romualdez and former Senator Grace Poe, who chaired the Senate Finance Committee in the previous Congress.

However, Puno claimed that Romualdez and Poe did not attend several meetings of the small panel, leaving Escudero and Co as the only members present.

Escudero again denied the existence of the small committee, insisting that it was a veiled attempt to divert public attention from the House to the Senate concerning the anomalies in the budget and flood control projects.

The Independent Commission for Infrastructure’s ongoing probe into the alleged kickback scheme in the flood control projects has drawn intense backlash over its purported slow progress in prosecuting members of Congress.

Critics believe that only Co can directly implicate Romualdez and Escudero in the budget irregularities, but the resigned embattled lawmaker has fled the country.

Erice said, however, that Escudero “knows all about it,” referring to the alleged insertions.