Senator Ping Lacson on Thursday derided the so-called “leadership fund” allegedly distributed among senators as “illegal” and “unconstitutional,” asserting that it is more susceptible to corruption than the infamous pork barrel system, which the Supreme Court abolished and outlawed in 2013. 

Compared to the pork barrel, where each senator was allocated a maximum of P200 million per year and members of the House of Representatives P70 million, Lacson underscored that the new scheme allows lawmakers to have an “unlimited” fund ceiling, reaching as high as P4 billion to P11 billion. 

“That's why the budget process was disrupted because of these shenanigans, so to speak,” Lacson told reporters in an ambush interview, adding that it is high time to abolish the leadership fund.

His remarks came on the heels of reports that senators in the 19th Congress received a whopping P24 billion in leadership funds from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in 2024, as alleged by the agency’s former head, Manuel Bononan, on Wednesday during his testimony on the malversation case of former senator Bong Revilla Jr.

Bonoan claimed the leadership funds were divided among senators, with each allegedly receiving at least P500 million, while chairpersons of major committees could receive as much as P1 billion each, purportedly at the discretion of then-Senate President Migz Zubiri.

Zubiri was the Senate president of the 19th Congress, but he was replaced by Senator Chiz Escudero midway through his term after he resigned in May 2024. Zubiri denied facilitating the leadership fund.

Senator JV Ejercito, a member of the previous Congress, told reporters on Thursday that he did not receive or have any involvement in the leadership fund. 

Although he served as the deputy majority leader under Zubiri, he insisted that, “I wasn’t part of the leadership that formulates the budget.”

According to Ejercito, he also raised the question with Senate President Win Gatchalian, who reportedly stated that “there was no such thing” during his stint as the chairperson of the Senate committee on finance, which oversees the budgetary process.

Nevertheless, Ejercito guaranteed that he would not allow the leadership fund or similar illicit practices to flourish under his watch as the new chair of the powerful panel. 

The leadership fund refers to an ad hoc or internal allocation in the budgetary process, also called “allocables,” which allows legislators to tinker with the National Expenditure Program (NEP) even before it is turned over to Congress. 

The NEP is the President’s proposed budget, submitted by the Department of Budget and Management to Congress for approval. It serves as the basis for the annual budget bill, which becomes the General Appropriations Act when enacted.

Lacson describes the leadership fund, or the allocables, as the “worst version” of the pork barrel, as it allows lawmakers free rein to meddle in the NEP, which falls solely within the purview of the executive branch.

The SC declared the pork barrel unconstitutional after it became a source of massive corruption that exposed and prosecuted a myriad of lawmakers for wrongdoings, including plunder, bribery, graft, and malversation.

How the scheme works

The scheme allegedly enables members of Congress to either insert their pet projects in the DPWH’s budget or choose infrastructure projects from a menu of pre-approved lists provided by district engineers. 

Lacson considered it a form of pre-budget insertion as it occurs during the early preparation stage of the NEP, long before the national spending plan reaches Congress.

“Congressmen and senators should not dip their fingers into budget preparation, because that falls within the domain of the executive branch, extending down to the local levels,” Lacson stressed.

According to Bonoan, the leadership fund was supposedly a covert deal between members of Congress and the DPWH to minimize disruptions to the budget, especially during the bicameral conference.

For instance, Bonoan said the P24 billion allegedly allocated to the senators was done in exchange for introducing new line items or insertions into the DPWH’s proposed 2024 budget after the department incurred a deep cut in its funding in the 2023 national budget.

The former Cabinet member claimed that the scheme has been in effect since 2024.

“Budget insertions” have become a notorious means of funneling public funds to favored legislative districts of lawmakers and have subsequently been associated with substandard, overpriced, or “ghost” or non-existent projects. 

Earlier, Lacson raised questions about why the DPWH’s budget was “significantly bloated” from 2023 to 2025, which he attributed to “congressional insertions.”

Lacson alleged that almost all senators of the previous Congress had individual budget insertions totaling at least P100 billion in the 2025 GAA.

Initially, the government proposed a P717.31 billion budget for the DPWH in 2023, about 9 percent lower than its 2022 budget.

However, the department’s budget rose to P893.12 billion under the 2023 General Appropriations Act, which Congress passed and President Marcos Jr. signed into law. 

Of the amount, P182.99 million was intended for flood control projects. 

In 2024, the DPWH’s budget further bloated to P996.8 billion under the GAA, despite having an initial proposed budget of P822.2 billion in the National Expenditure Program.

Of the P996.8 billion, P244.58 billion was allocated to flood mitigation projects. 

Before her controversial death in December last year, former DPWH undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral allegedly dealt directly with lawmakers or their staff to identify their pet projects and “allocables” for inclusion in the DPWH's proposed annual budget in exchange for commissions.

‘No surprise’

Lacson said recent developments no longer came as a surprise because they formed part of the findings of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s investigation, which he formerly chaired, into the flood control scandal. 

The BRC’s probe revealed that billions in allocables were linked to House leadership, party lists, and even his colleagues in the Senate. 

"I already knew that. Didn’t we even have a disagreement over it when I raised the issue? I said it doesn't automatically mean that there is misuse if there is allocable. But you know, it could open the floodgates to abuse, to corruption,” he pointed out.

Despite this, Lacson expressed confidence that the 2026 budget was free from the leadership fund, which he said was engineered by Bonoan and Cabral.

With the 2027 proposed budget already submitted to the Senate and deliberations looming, Lacson said his office has begun scrutinizing the budget proposals of agencies with infrastructure dealings, especially the DPWH, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Transportation. 

Despite anomalies, the administration reinstated the budget for corruption-plagued flood control projects under the DPWH for 2027, after receiving zero allocation in this year‘s budget.

A whopping P107.4 billion is earmarked for flood control projects, accounting for 16 percent of the agency’s total proposed allocation totaling P644 billion. 

As a result, the DPWH stands as the second agency to receive the largest share of the proposed P7.2 trillion budget for 2027, next to the education sector, with P1.314 trillion, of which P976 billion will go to the Department of Education.