Doomed nation

American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand said in her novel, Atlas Shrugged, “When corruption is rewarded, and honesty becomes a self-sacrifice, you may know that your society is doomed.”

That warning is now playing out in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration.

The size of the national budget is not the issue; the way it is spent is. Even in the 2026 budget, Nosy Tarsee was shown several questionable projects that could simply be a waste.

The P6.79 trillion for the 2026 budget is acceptable as long as the target spending is considered best for economic growth.

Even if you cut spending in agencies like the Department of Public Works and Highways, there will always be other areas that need investment. A budget analyst said education spending had been severely lacking in recent years.

Health spending was also insufficient. One reason the 2025 budget was criticized was that PhilHealth’s budget was zeroed out. So, investments in those sectors are still lacking, while the DPWH budget remains overpriced.

The pundit explained to Nosy Tarsee that even if we cut some of these overpriced items, the root issue is that we should be investing more in priority sectors.

Unprogrammed Appropriations (UA) are a tricky part of the budget because they are standby items, meaning they are not guaranteed funding. They require excess revenue under three conditions: a new source of taxes, excess revenue when tax targets are exceeded, or a new loan that was not initially planned. So items under the UA are not guaranteed in the first place.

The question is not whether these items should have been budgeted, but why they were placed under the UA. Shouldn’t they have been placed in the regular programmed budget where payment is guaranteed?

This is a trend in past budgets. For instance, emergency allowances for health workers were placed under the UA.

For years, the government committed to paying the allowances of health workers who responded during the pandemic, yet they kept putting the provision under the UA. Every year, payments lapsed and were delayed.

Why not place these funds in the regular programmed budget and cut some pork instead?

Yet the dynamic is that pork insertions and patronage programs take priority over necessary items that should have been included in the programmed budget.

Thus, the losses are borne by Filipinos, while the gains accrue to the crooks in government.

Fawning ops

What puzzles many is why an agency head is flying to the United Arab Emirates to personally investigate the death of a Filipina worker in Abu Dhabi.

“He is the regulator. He could order his staff in that country to do it. Why is there even a need to spend money on that?” a source told Nosy Tarsee.

In a press release, the secretary of the agency said he is flying to Abu Dhabi to personally investigate the death of a Filipina worker.

Coincidentally, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is traveling to the UAE next week on a state visit. The source, irked, sees the secretary as using the case of the OFW as an excuse to be there to welcome the President.

“Disguises himself as a bleeding heart, but it turns out he is actually part of the delegation. What a shame,” the source said.