Call louder over House disclosure

Calls for disclosure of budget allocations earmarked for their respective congressional districts and partylists are growing louder amid renewed concerns over a lack of transparency in the national budget.

The lawmaker took up the challenge of Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, who went on a live broadcast the previous week to detail the proposed projects that were being funded in his district while urging fellow lawmakers to do the same.

“Kamanggagawa Partylist is taking up the challenge to release all proposed projects and insertions in the 2027 budget,” San Fernando said in a statement on Sunday. “Why would we not take it up? We had zero allocations; we did not ask for, insert, or plead for an infrastructure project in the 2027 budget.”

Come clean

San Fernando asserted that any lawmaker confident that their projects were included in the House General Appropriations Bill would not be afraid to disclose how they intended to spend their allocated amount.

He maintained that Congress has the prerogative to explain to the Filipino people how it intends to spend public funds allocated to it, particularly if there are no anomalies behind the appropriation.