Even in the National Expenditure Program (NEP), touted as the President’s proposed budget for next year, traces of lump sums suspiciously similar to pork barrel funds remain.

Senator Panfilo Lacson has questioned why some government projects in the P7.2-trillion 2027 spending proposal will be funded through lump-sum allocations, pointing out that Congress should know exactly where the money will go before approving it.

Lacson said he and his staff spotted the allocations while examining the NEP the executive branch submitted to Congress last week. He did not identify the agency, projects, or amounts involved, however.

The executive branch prepares the NEP and submits it to Congress for deliberation. Congress then modifies it, eventually producing the General Appropriations Bill.

Senate Finance Committee chairperson JV Ejercito assured Lacson he would not allow new items to be inserted during the Bicameral Conference Committee (Bicam) stage of deliberations unless they appeared in either the House or Senate versions.

“I hope this year that under Sen JV’s chairmanship, he will fulfill his promise not to allow insertions at the Bicam level,” Lacson said.

Wanting in details

“We spotted lump sum appropriations that we don’t think should be lump sums,” Lacson said in a radio interview. “If it’s for infrastructure projects we will ask for details.”

Lacson said he could formally raise the issue at a Development Budget Coordination Committee briefing scheduled for 27 August.

The proposed budget is six percent larger than this year’s P6.793 trillion, with infrastructure and other economic services among the government’s major spending priorities.

Lacson said lump sum funding could be justified for calamity expenses, which are difficult to predict, but they should be explained when used for infrastructure projects with identifiable locations and costs.

He also plans to examine special provisions that could potentially be used to expand unprogrammed appropriations, citing past budget provisions he described as “highly questionable” and which were later removed.

He also questioned why local projects continue to be sought directly from lawmakers despite a 2025 order from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that gives regional development councils a bigger role in national planning and budgeting.

Executive Order 82 requires national agencies to prioritize projects endorsed by regional development councils in their investment programs and annual budgets.

Yet Lacson said local officials still approached senators because projects they considered priorities were absent from the proposed budget.

“This early we see many mayors visiting the Senate, telling us that their projects did not make it to the NEP. There is a disconnect,” he said.

House debates set

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives is set to begin deliberations on the national budget proposal this month, Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. said.