Lacson won’t sign bicam report unless MAIFIP, road funds are fixed

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Sunday said he will not sign the bicameral conference committee report on the proposed 2026 national budget unless contentious provisions on medical assistance and farm-to-market roads are corrected.

Lacson objected to the bicam panel’s decision to sharply increase the budget of the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) to P51 billion, as well as to allocate P33 billion for farm-to-market roads, warning that both provisions raise serious concerns over legal compliance and the risk of political patronage.

“Sorry, unless rectified in its final version, I cannot sign to ratify a bicam report with P51 billion for MAIFIP, with nothing but guarantee letters from politicians, and is not compliant with the Universal Health Care Act,” Lacson lamented.

“Further, I will not associate myself with the P33-billion spending for unplanned and unvetted farm-to-market roads,” he added.

During the first day of bicameral deliberations on the 2026 budget bill on Saturday, December 13, lawmakers agreed to raise MAIFIP’s proposed funding to P51 billion.

The amount is higher than the P42 billion allocation in 2025 and exceeds both the House proposal of P49 billion and the Senate-approved level of P29 billion.

The bicameral committee also approved a P33-billion allocation for farm-to-market roads, higher than the P32 billion in the House version and more than double the P16 billion proposed under the National Expenditure Program (NEP).

Lacson stressed that all health-related funds should be aligned with and subsumed under the Universal Health Care (UHC) program of the Department of Health to ensure comprehensive coverage and zero billing for patients.

“Unless we adequately fund the UHC programs such that they cover all barangays and ensure zero billing, among others, we cannot fully implement the UHC law that we passed,” he said.

“Guarantee letters from politicians will only guarantee patronage politics but not the health care needs of Filipinos, especially the indigents,” he further stressed.

The senator has long raised concerns over MAIFIP, noting that its current setup allows politicians to issue guarantee letters for patients, making the program vulnerable to political exploitation.

One of his priority measures, Senate Bill No. 404, seeks to place MAIFIP firmly under the UHC framework and penalize the political manipulation of medical assistance funds.

Lacson also reiterated his earlier questions regarding the proposed farm-to-market roads projects, particularly whether the list of roads to be funded—potentially sourced from the realignment of P255.5 billion in flood control funds—was submitted by the Department of Agriculture or by individual lawmakers.