Aside from members of Congress, Malacañang also shares the blame for the alleged large-scale corruption scheme in the fraudulent flood control projects for “approving” the release of unprogrammed appropriations (UA) to bankroll the program, a House minority lawmaker asserted Wednesday.
At the plenary deliberations on the proposed P27.4 billion budget of the Office of the President for 2026, ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio and Bataan Rep. Albert Garcia locked in a debate over whether President Marcos Jr. is also responsible for the flood control fiasco by allegedly allowing the release of P214.4 billion in UA to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Tinio revealed that P61.4 billion and P153 billion were released to the DPWH from the UA in 2023 and 2024, respectively, which were tapped to fund a total of 3,700 projects, including flood control, roads, bridges, and multi-purpose buildings.
“In short, the 3,700 additional local infrastructure projects, including flood control projects funded from unprogrammed appropriations in 2023 and 2024 […] will go through the DBM, but approval shall only come from the president,” Tinio said.
“The executive secretary was wrong in saying that he had nothing to do with the unprogrammed appropriations because the president himself approved it, Mr. Speaker. And therefore, the president has accountability for all those projects, including accountability for the corruption that is now being exposed in relation to the unprogrammed appropriations and flood control, Mr. Speaker,” the Makabayan solon further pointed out.
Unprogrammed appropriations are "standby funds" that can be used when the government collects more revenue than expected or when additional grants or foreign funds are generated.
The government typically taps the UA in cases of emergencies or when infrastructure projects, social aid programs, among other programs, are required.
Garcia, however, argued that contrary to Tinio’s assumptions, the UA is not a lump-sum fund solely controlled by Malacañang to decide which programs get funded from it.
Rather, the sponsor contended that the DBM, the Bureau of Treasury, and the requesting agency are responsible for its release.
“The Office of the President has nothing to do with this because it is within the jurisdiction of the requesting agency of the DBM and the Bureau of Treasury. So, all of this happens without the involvement of the Office of the President,” Garcia stressed.
‘Unprecedented’
According to Tinio, the UA under the Marcos administration has already reached nearly P2 trillion since 2023, though Garcia claimed that Marcos vetoed P168.2 billion in the 2025 General Appropriations Act.
The 2025 GAA was initially at P6.352 trillion but was slashed to P6.326 trillion after Marcos vetoed P194 billion worth of line items deemed inconsistent with his administration's priority programs. Of the vetoed items, P16.7 billion was intended for flood control projects.
Tinio did not buy Garcia’s assertions that Marcos had no hand in the release of UA, citing a provision in the GAA that provides for the release of UA through a special budget request as required by Book VI, Chapter 5, Section 35 of the Administrative Code of 1987 (Executive Order 292).
The EO states that expenditures from a lump-sum appropriation for any department must be “made in accordance with a special budget to be approved by the President.”
Garcia, however, contended that UA was not specified in the said EO, and therefore, “These unprogrammed appropriations do not go through the OP.”
This year’s budget, dubbed the “most corrupt” budget passed by Congress, was heavily criticized for allegedly featuring bloated UA and discretionary funds while budget and subsidies to the Department of Education and state health insurer PhilHealth, respectively, suffered deep cuts.
DBM also to blame
Over the weekend, Senator Ping Lacson, who chairs the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee investigating the flood control anomalies, pointed to DBM’s “negligence” that resulted in the release of the UA for flood control projects. He said many of these purportedly were handled directly by district engineering offices involved in ghost or substandard projects, like Bulacan.
Several members of Congress, particularly Senators Chiz Escudero, Joel Villanueva, Jinggoy Estrada, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, and Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co—who already stepped down from his post—are being accused of receiving billions in flood control kickbacks in Bulacan. They all denied the allegations.
Former senators Bong Revilla and Nancy Binay were also tagged by former DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo.
Bernardo, whose name was frequently mentioned in the scandal, also implicated DepEd Undersecretary Trygve Olaivar, accusing him of demanding 15 percent commitment—a code for commission—from the list of projects that would be charged to UA, allegedly for Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.
Bersamin dismissed Bernardo’s imputation as “not true,” asserting that his office has no hand in the budgetary allocation of the scandal-ridden DPWH.
The National Bureau of Investigation had already recommended filing charges against the lawmakers and DPWH officials, except for Romualdez and Olaivar.
The Department of Justice attributed Romualdez’s omission from the NBI list for case buildup to his accuser, Orly Guteza, 's failure to appear before the DoJ to submit his affidavit.