THE chairperson of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations on Monday assured the public that the 2026 national budget contains no pork barrel funds, emphasizing that all appropriations were itemized, transparent, and free from post-enactment congressional intervention.
Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Angela B. Suansing made the assurance following persistent claims from the chamber’s Makabayan bloc and some civil society groups that the national budget allegedly contains more than P600 billion in pork barrel-type allocations.
‘We assure the public that there are no pork barrel allocations in the 2026 budget,’ Suansing said in a news conference.
‘The programs often cited-such as AICS [Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations] under DSWD [Departmet of Social Welfare and Development], MAIP [Medical Assistance to Indigent Patients] under DOH [Department of Health], and Tupad [Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged-Displaced Workers] under DOLE [Department of Labor and Emplooyment]-are all implemented directly by their respective agencies. Congress has no post-enactment role in how these are implemented,’ she added.
Suansing clarified that once the General Appropriations bill is enacted into law, the authority and discretion to disburse funds rest solely with the implementing agencies-not with lawmakers.
‘Congress never engages in post-enactment interventions,’ she said. ‘Each agency has its own guidelines and internal procedures for releasing funds. There are no lump-sum appropriations, no hidden funds, and no embedded projects.’
She underscored that the 2026 national budget is fully itemized, detailing all allocations to ensure transparency and accountability in government spending.
Suansing assured that the proposed national budget for 2026 will be transparent, corruption-free, and responsive to the needs of Filipinos.
She emphasized that Congress remains committed in ensuring that every peso in the 2026 budget will directly benefit the people and address the country’s most urgent priorities.
‘The assurance that we can give to our fellow Filipinos is that our budget for 2026 will truly respond to the needs of our people and our nation. It will be clean, it will be transparent, and most importantly, it will be a budget that our citizens can trust,’ Suansing said.
She underscored that transparency and accountability will remain at the core of the budget process, ensuring that funds are allocated efficiently and free from misuse.
The Makabayan bloc earlier rejected the approval of the proposed P6.793-trillion General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for 2026, denouncing it as a continuation of the ‘corrupt pork barrel system’ despite the ongoing trillion-peso flood control scandal.
According to the bloc, the ‘presidential pork’ alone amounts to P281 billion, including P243 billion in Unprogrammed Appropriations-a funding mechanism that ballooned in previous years and allegedly became a major source of funds for ghost and overpriced projects.
They added that the P10.9-billion Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIF) remain ‘grotesquely inflated,’ with the Office of the President keeping the largest share at P4.5 billion, while the NTF-ELCAC’s P8.08-billion Barangay Development Fund also remains intact.
Makabayan also alleged that P415 billion constitutes ‘legislative pork,’ coursed mainly through the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and other agencies.
The bloc said that through the DPWH’s district offices, P174.6 billion will be distributed as ‘allocables,’ roughly P230 million per congressional district and P3.2 billion per senator.
Other allocations allegedly open to congressional discretion include P32.6 billion for farm-to-market roads, P35.1 billion for school buildings, P20.2 billion for health facilities, and P9.6 billion for irrigation projects.