Tiangco urges lawmakers to disclose district allocations anew

Lawmakers at the House of Representatives must hold themselves to the same standards of transparency expected of all government agencies when it comes to their respective budget allocations per district, Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco said.

Tiangco renewed his appeal to House members on Friday, a day after conducting a livestream to display the distribution of the P2.2 billion budget that was approved for the lone congressional district of Navotas.

“If they do not want to make transparency mandatory, I will start with my own district. There is no reason to hide from the public where their money goes,” he said in a statement.

The call comes more than two weeks after the lower chamber approved on third and final reading the 2027 House General Appropriations Bill (HGAB), which contains its amendments to the proposed P7.2 trillion budget of the executive.

Tiangco was among the 13 lawmakers that voted against the approval of the HGAB.

During plenary deliberations of the measure, Tiangco sought for two amendments to be inserted which would require the House to detail how its budget was allocated and how the budget for each district and partylist was going to be utilized–both proposals were denied.

In an attempt to set an example for his colleagues, the lawmaker decided to go live on social media profile to explain how the approved P2.2 billion budget was going to be utilized for his district.

Tiangco said that the initial budget that was approved by the Regional Development Council and civil society organizations was P4.53 billion while the amount that was included in the National Expenditure Program was P1.60 billion.

With the large chunk of the proposed budget cut, Tiangco said that he had conducted a meeting with officials from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to provide additional funding for priority projects of Navotas such as pumping stations and riverwalls.

After the discussions, he said that there were institutional amendments inserted in the Navotas’ infrastructure budget amounting to P673 million, raising the district’s proposal in the HGAB.

Amid his own disclosures, Tiangco expressed hope that his fellow lawmakers would follow suit and lay out their allocations for the coming year.

“If we can show to the people of Navotas how much the budget is, where it will be used, and why these were the projects selected, hopefully all congressmen will do this. It is the right of every Filipino to know how public funds are spent,” he said in Filipino.

Tiangco said that members of Congress owed it to the people to be more transparent, stressing that the budget came from the pockets of Filipinos.

“Transparency can not only be sought from the budget of other government agencies. It should start in Congress. The budget comes from the people, not from politicians,” he said.

“It should be the standard for everyone in government. And that standard must begin with us,” he added.

The Senate is currently conducting its scrutiny of the 2027 NEP, ahead of the bicameral conference committee.

During bicam, both chambers of Congress will deliberate on disagreeing provisions before submitting a consolidated bill that would be subject to the final approval of the President.