Ejercito panel grilling DBM on P58.5-B LGU fund

Senator JV Ejercito, chair of the Senate finance committee, said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) would face questions over the record-high P58.53-billion Local Government Support Fund (LGSF) in the proposed 2027 national budget, amid concerns over possible pork barrel allocations.

The amount under the National Expenditure Program (NEP), the President’s proposed budget, was further increased by P4.09 billion by a House of Representatives subcommittee before the chamber submitted its budget version to the Senate.

“The DBM will be the last agency to face questioning, and we will ask them about the criteria they use for selecting [which local government will get a chunk of these funds] since the DBM is responsible for processing the LGSF,” Ejercito said in a radio interview.

Ejercito said the fund, criticized as “soft pork” or “LGU pork,” must be distributed fairly among local government units (LGUs) and used to address grassroots needs, not to reward political allies.

He noted that initial reports indicated nearly all LGUs that applied for LGSF funding received allocations under the NEP, raising questions about the DBM’s criteria for approving applications.

“That is how we will determine if they have criteria in place. We must ensure that this serves to assist the LGUs, rather than being used for political patronage,” he said.

The 2027 NEP also reportedly contained uniform P180-million lump-sum allocations for evacuation centers across 17 regions, totaling more than P3 billion, without identifying specific project locations.

Evacuation centers can be funded through the LGSF.