Malacañang vows veto of dubious budget items

Malacañang on Tuesday assured the public that projects proposed under the administration’s 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP) are backed by sufficient documentation, amid mounting concerns over questionable insertions in the House version of the budget.

Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro urged civil society groups and budget watchdogs to share their findings, saying President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was willing to listen.

“The government needs everyone scrutinizing the budget. The President and the administration need to know what you are seeing because the President listens,” Castro said.

The watchdog People’s Budget Coalition earlier flagged nearly P1 trillion in potential pork barrel allocations, including P210 billion in patronage-driven assistance, P695 billion in politicized infrastructure projects and P112 billion in Unprogrammed Appropriations.

A separate Senate review found that the number of Department of Public Works and Highways projects increased from 11,420 in the NEP to 16,244 in the House version.

Senate finance committee chairperson Senator JV Ejercito said only 1,418 projects, or 8.73 percent, had physical and digital documentation, while the rest lacked supporting documents.

Castro stressed that Marcos would not tolerate the misuse of public funds, which should benefit Filipinos rather than individuals.

“The President’s instruction is clear: public funds must not be abused. They belong to the people, not to anyone’s pockets,” she said.

She added that the President would respect Congress’ authority to deliberate on and amend the budget, saying it was not his mandate to interfere in the decisions of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The proposed budget will undergo further scrutiny during the bicameral conference committee proceedings and review by the government’s economic team before it reaches the President for approval.

Castro cautioned against prematurely attributing alleged irregularities to the administration, saying the President wanted executive-proposed projects retained to avoid delays in their implementation.

However, she said Marcos would veto projects if their funding allocations were found to be questionable or inadequately supported, as he had done previously.