Suansing denies budget ‘incentives’

House Appropriations Committee Chairperson Rep. Mikaela Suansing strongly denied Monday an imputation by her colleague, Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste, that lawmakers were offered “incentives” disguised as line items in the closely scrutinized P6.793-trillion 2026 national budget.

Suansing asserted that the voting on the ratification of the bicameral conference committee report on the 2026 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) rested solely on the discretion of each House member, refuting speculations that payoffs were intended to keep lawmakers from questioning the budget amid concerns it contained pork barrel allocations.

“The House leadership does not influence any individual member of the House on how to vote,” she said in Filipino. “The House of Representatives is a collegial body. We respect each member to have the freedom to vote and to decide based on the needs of their constituents and their conscience.”

Her remarks came on the heels of Leviste’s allegation that a staff member in Suansing’s office in late September offered him P151 million worth of government programs to be allocated to his district, before the House approved its version of the GAB on final reading.

Leviste alleged that Suansing’s staffer personally offered him the programs as “incentives” during a brief meeting in the House lounge.

He suspected that this may have something to do with his position as one of the vice chairs of the appropriations committee responsible for crafting and finalizing its version of the national budget, or GAB, based on the National Expenditure Program submitted by the executive branch.

Leviste further alleged that his peers were also given incentives, though the amounts were much higher than that offered him.

The incentives were supposedly in the guise of the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) program under the Department of Health and the Department of Labor and Employment’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD), at aggregate amounts of P21 million and P25 million, respectively.

It also included the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (P25 million) and farm-to-market roads under the Department of Agriculture (P30 million).

Others were in the form of unmentioned projects under the Department of Public Works and Highways (P25 million), the Department of Education, and the National Irrigation Administration, as well as other soft projects worth P25 million.

Suansing, however, said such claims starkly contradicted the House’s effort to make the budget process more transparent in a bid to regain the public’s trust in Congress.

She said the sweeping reforms included, among other things, the creation of the Budget Amendment and Review Sub-Committee composed of selected House and Senate members to replace the so-called small committee where back-door insertions reportedly occurred.

Through these initiatives, Suansing averred that the national budget was thoroughly scrutinized before it was submitted for plenary consideration, leaving no room for blunders.

Furthermore, she claimed that all the members of both the House and the Senate were furnished a digital copy of the bicam version of the GAB for their further scrutiny before the ratification vote yesterday, 29 January.