Throwing off the scent

Throwing off the scent | Daily Tribune

A great deal has been done to mislead the public, who are keeping a close watch on the trail of the biggest burglary of the national coffers, which was the apparent purpose for the unceremonious offloading of Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman.

Pangandaman’s silence after being shamefully discarded may point to her pivotal role in the scandal.

As the former head of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Pangandaman oversaw the budget process, including the approval, allocation, and release of funds under the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

At the heart of the flood control mess are allegations of the misuse of Unprogrammed Appropriations (UA), which are standby funds intended for unforeseen expenditures such as foreign-assisted projects, infrastructure gaps, and emergencies, but which are craftily used as a vehicle to generate slush funds and revive the pork barrel system.

The Floodgate scandal centered on hundreds of billions of pesos worth of “ghost” and substandard flood-control projects under the Department of Public Works and Highways.

The racket, carried out through a conspiracy of Executive and Legislative allies of the incumbent regime, enabled kickbacks, overpricing, and diversions through opaque budgetary mechanisms.

UA funds are lump-sum funds not tied to line items or projects in the National Expenditure Program (NEP).

Financing for the UA can only be released upon meeting certain triggers, such as excess revenue collections certified by the Bureau of the Treasury or the release of loan proceeds.

In 2024, a new funding source was created through the so-called excess funds of government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) via an inserted provision in the General Appropriations Act of that year mandating the Department of Finance (DoF) to sweep up the reserve funds of state firms.

That led to a DoF directive from then — Finance secretary Ralph Recto requiring the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to release P89.9 billion and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) to hand over P117 billion to plug the UA, which required more than P200 billion.

The UA enabled slush funds, or a discretionary money pool, that allowed executive and legislative officials to bypass transparency and allocate funds post-facto for patronage and corrupt ends, effectively reviving the pork barrel system that the Supreme Court outlawed in 2013.

Pork projects displaced even big-ticket infrastructure that made funding for the UA mandatory, while legislative insertions received priority in the allocation of government resources.

In 2023 and 2024, a total of P141 billion was released from the UA specifically for flood control projects, all of which were listed with broad purposes allowing for their discretionary allocation without public scrutiny.

The 2024 GAA included P731.45 billion in UA, far exceeding the executive’s proposed P281.9 billion, with insertions ballooning during congressional deliberations.

By 2025, the UA had grown to include massive infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges, and flood control (e.g., P145.47 billion in priority programs), often inserted outside the NEP.

Pangandaman’s tenure from 2022 to 2025 coincided with the escalation of the foul practices. As DBM head, she was responsible for certifying fund availability, approving special allotment release orders, and overseeing budget execution, crucial steps to enable the pilfering of the budget.

Former Socioeconomic Planning secretary Solita Monsod questioned her accountability at a recent forum at the University of the Philippines, saying that she knew, or should have known, about the budget diversions.

The DBM under Pangandaman implemented schemes that defunded agencies such as PhilHealth, redirecting the savings to the UA. She expressed frustration over the insertions in the 2026 budget proposal but failed to prevent them.

Still, she defended the UA as non-discretionary and constitutional, insisting that it was not pork but an essential buffer that clashed with the massive UA growth and releases under the Marcos administration.

The estimated P3.4 trillion in losses from corruption through budget manipulations over three years requires Pangandaman to spill the beans.

Amin na, Pangandaman.