FORMER NEDA director general Solita C. Monsod discusses transparency in the national budget deliberations, the country plagued by rampant corruption, and other related subjects with Straight Talk show hosts Chito Lozada and Teddy Montelibano.
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Former NEDA director general Solita Monsod has been highly critical of the current administration, which has faced intense scrutiny since the onset of the flood control scandal last year. Monsod said rampant government corruption remains a significant obstacle to achieving sustainable and inclusive growth. “We’re not in the same rut as before. We are in a deeper rut. Because the corruption today has taken world-class magnitudes”
Monsod is calling for sweeping reforms to the national budgeting process even as she describes the current Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. administration as the second-most corrupt in the country’s history, behind his father, the late Ferdinand E. Marcos’ dictatorship
“The amount of corruption of this president, under this president’s administration, is only less than the amount of corruption during his father’s time. No kidding,” she said during the Wednesday, 26 August episode of the DAILY TRIBUNE program Straight Talk.
Highly critical
Monsod has been highly critical of the current administration, which has faced intense scrutiny since the onset of the flood control scandal last year. The “floodgate” scandal has had significant economic repercussions, including slower growth due to the slump in infrastructure investment and delays in the passage of this year’s budget, as public scrutiny intensified over the lengthy and convoluted legislative process amid allegations that funds were diverted to politicians.
For Monsod, the solution is simple: “Remove the unprogrammed appropriations (UAs),” she said.
“Because any additional funds that we get should be used for covering the budget, the gap.”
Despite the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) maintaining that UAs are constitutional, critics have questioned their purpose.
Reps. Edgar Erice and Leila de Lima have argued that UAs authorize spending even when the source of financing is not yet definite or available when Congress approves the budget. De Lima has referred to UAs as “shadow pork,” a characterization Monsod agreed with.
Unprogrammed allocations as pork barrel
“They have used the unprogrammed appropriations as a way of pork barrel, or as a way of financing the projects, the favorite projects of our legislators,” she said.
“I do not think there is a place for unprogrammed appropriations because those unprogrammed appropriations are being used as pork barrel.”
Monsod also called for greater transparency in the National Expenditure Program (NEP), the President’s proposed national budget submitted to both Houses of Congress for deliberation.
“The second thing that should happen to the budget is please announce to the public the difference between the NEP that the president... presented and what it actually turned out to be in the government.”
‘There should be transparency’
“When it is changed, we should know who is changing it and what they changed it for. In other words, transparency. There should be transparency.”
Marcos ordered a comprehensive review of the 2026 NEP following the controversy, resulting in no new flood control projects being funded in the final budget.
However, some legislators noted that questionable projects had already appeared in the Executive’s own NEP even before Congress made changes, including projects that had already been completed or were duplicates.
Monsod said the “floodgate” scandal has also weighed on economic growth, which has declined for four consecutive quarters, reaching a 17-year low of 2.3 percent in the second quarter as infrastructure investment remains subdued.
“[A]s far as the government is concerned, we have the resources, and the funding to achieve our development goals. If only the government officials themselves, meaning the legislative and the executive, just keep their hands out of that budget,” she said.
“We are paying for that corruption now,” underscored Monsod.
‘No more bicameral conference committee’
The former NEDA director general, who had also been concurrently Socio-Economic Planning secretary, also called for the abolition of the bicameral conference committee, where the House and Senate versions of the budget are reconciled.
“There should be no more bicameral conference committee,” she said.
Alternately, “the Bicam [should] be open to all viewers, so we would see exactly who wanted to change what. Because the Bicam can pass a completely new budget that nobody knows what happened to it.”
To illustrate, former Congressman Zaldy Co alleged that P100 billion worth of projects were ordered inserted during the 2025 bicameral process, specifically implicating then-DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman while tagging President Marcos as the “mastermind.”
Gov’t corruption a significant obstacle to growth
Monsod said rampant government corruption remains a significant obstacle to achieving sustainable and inclusive growth.
“We’re not in the same rut as before. We are in a deeper rut. Because the corruption today has taken world-class magnitudes.”
