Fix own budget mess, Tinio dares House

spending controversy matters more than meeting the year-end deadline.

“So what?” Tinio answered when asked on DAILY TRIBUNE’s Straight Talk program about warnings that a recall could delay the budget’s enactment.

A few days under a reenacted budget, he said, is a small price to pay for fixing provisions that may run afoul of Supreme Court rulings.

He noted that the 2026 General Appropriations Act was signed days into the year amid infrastructure allocation issues, and said a week’s recall would not necessarily delay the passage anyway.

The House could also certify the measure as urgent to bypass mandatory timelines, he said.

Tinio was among 13 lawmakers who voted against the P6.326-trillion budget’s approval. He said the House should learn from past court rulings rather than leave corrections to the Senate.

In contrast, Senate Finance Committee chairperson JV Ejercito urged the House not to recall the budget, saying disputed items can be handled in December’s bicameral conference, warning that a recall could jeopardize the budget’s passage before the end of the year.

Lessons from Floodgate

The 2025 budget is the cautionary tale. Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab called it the “most corrupt budget” ever passed by Congress.

Critics cited extensive congressional insertions, bloated unprogrammed appropriations, and infrastructure funds diverted to unevaluated projects. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vetoed P194 billion in line items, including P16.7 billion for flood control.

The ensuing Floodgate scandal exposed alleged kickbacks involving contractors, Department of Public Works and Highways officials, and lawmakers.

Former Ako Bicol representative Elizaldy Co alleged that P100 billion in questionable insertions were made during bicameral committee deliberations, with P25 billion supposedly earmarked for President Marcos.

At the time, Senator Panfilo Lacson said nearly all the items on Co’s list were present in the budget files, though some had errors, but he found no evidence that kickbacks reached the President. Malacañang denied the allegations.

In October 2026, the Supreme Court declared the 2025 budget unconstitutional, citing a P17.99-billion increase to the DPWH Special Road Fund beyond the President’s recommendation, and a P12.75-billion increase in certain Special Accounts that violated the Administrative Code.

It also ruled that the SAGIP program had become a prohibited lump-sum repository for infrastructure funds. The Court, however, did not declare the entire budget corrupt.

Familiar questions

Tinio renewed his objection to the P58.53-billion Local Government Support Fund in the 2027 budget, which he said lacked an itemized breakdown and resembled the pork barrel struck down by the High Court. He also called for scrutiny of an P11.49-billion increase in the DPWH budget in the House version.

The People’s Budget Coalition has flagged 405 DPWH projects worth P4.37 billion in Ilocos Norte’s first district, represented by House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos, the President’s son.

It also blew the whistle on about 7,000 infrastructure projects worth P190 billion that lacked supporting documents. Malacañang defended the allocation, saying insertions were not inherently wrong if the projects benefit the public and were not ghost projects or made of substandard materials.

The House approved the budget on third reading on 13 October, before the Supreme Court ruling. The Senate finished its committee hearings on 22 October and began plenary deliberations on 9 November.

For Tinio, the question is not whether Congress can pass the budget on time, but whether it will correct provisions that could cast a cloud of doubt on the handling of public money and the credibility of the budget process.