Keeping watch
Suzara’s work does not stop with analyzing the executive branch’s budget proposal.
She is also watching what happens when the budget reaches Congress, particularly the Bicameral Conference Committee, or Bicam.
While the Department of Budget and Management proposes a relatively modest level of unprogrammed appropriations in the National Expenditure Program, Suzara noted that these amounts have been increased during congressional deliberations in previous years.
That makes the legislative process an important part of her scrutiny.
Even livestreaming the Bicam proceedings, she said, does not eliminate the need for public vigilance.
For Suzara, transparency ultimately depends on people paying attention to the numbers and tracking how they change throughout the budget process.
She recalled that during the previous year’s budget deliberations, a livestream was cut for more than six hours. Budget monitors later observed increases in allocations for guarantee letters, ayuda programs and other appropriations, she said.
Suzara’s reading of the 2027 budget comes down to a simple distinction: P7.2 trillion may be the headline, but P1.15 trillion is where much of the government’s real discretion lies.
And with that space tightening, Suzara argues the more important question is not how big the national budget is.
It is what government chooses to do with the little room it has left.
