Civil society organizations faced the Senate panel on finance on Tuesday to discuss transparency and accountability measures aimed at strengthening the country’s budget process.
During the hearing, which was presided over by panel head Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, Roundtable For Inclusive Development co-convenor Adolfo Jose Montesa said that based on their analysis, the house-approved General Appropriations Bill has three ‘malignant cancer growths.’
He particularly identified these growths as various types of pork: Soft pork, hard pork and the shadow budget.
‘The first tumor that we wanted to discuss – the first cancerous tumor – is what we call ‘soft pork,’ which hides behind programs we refer to as ayuda or assistance,’ said Montesa.
‘These are considered pork because instead of guaranteeing people’s rights, these programs have turned citizens into clients, and politicians into gatekeepers,’ he noted.
He then explained that based on their analysis, the indignities of soft pork allocations have persisted through P156 billion-worth of insertions across the past four budgets since 2022.
‘Combined funds allocated to these programs account for almost P70 billion worth of increase or insertions from the NEP to the House version of the GAB in 2026,’ said Montesa.
‘Although these programs are seemingly designed for assistance and relief, they actually push Filipinos to beg for their rights to health, education and public aid – and often, these come with a price,’ he added.
These ayuda programs are not only ‘entrenched patronage politics,’ Montesa said. ‘These programs have also come at the expense of the rules-based and rights-based social protection programs such as PhilHealth and 4Ps.’
‘The second tumor is what we call ‘hard pork.’ These are the economic and political rents captured in infrastructure programs by political and contractor networks,’ he identified.
‘So the problem with infrastructure insertions is not necessarily in the roads, the buildings or irrigation projects per se, but that these allocations have become detached from the more transparent science-based and people-centered planning that we should expect,’ he told lawmakers.
Lastly, the last ‘cancerous tumor’ in the budget is the shadow budget, Montesa said.
He explained that these are the unprogrammed appropriations which used to be on standby authorization utilized only when revenues exceed targets.
‘Before 2022, the value of the UA (unprogrammed appropriations) did not reach P250 billion, and there were even zero insertions in it. But since 2022, we have observed that the UA has ballooned into billions of pesos – and so have the insertions into it,’ observed Montesa.
‘Over the last four budgets, congressional insertions into the UA alone have totaled P1.1 trillion, which is why we called it a shadow budget,’ he explained.
With this, he proposed the following actions:
Remove the P256 billion in port and patronage programs in the House version of the budget.
Remove the whole P243 billion unprogrammed appropriations.
Hold all those involved accountable to regain the public’s trust.
Open bicam and meet with civil society groups to create an Open Budget Transparency server.
‘The evidence is clear – our country, or rather our budget, has cancer. And with each day that the illness is not directly confronted, the stages of our cancer only worsen,’ laments Montesa.
His recommendations were backed by People’s Budget Coalition co-convenor Kenneth Isaiah Abante, who noted the need for a science-based and multi-sectoral representation in the budget preparation stage.
But when it comes to budget legislation, Abante said that one of the most important reforms is to stop the abusive practice of secret insertions, especially in the bicam.
‘The public needs to know how much was inserted into the budget and who made those insertions,’ he said.
‘We would like to commend the Senate for passing a concurrent resolution that opens up this process. However, it is equally important to have an open budget transparency server where the media and civil society can easily report these insertions,’ he emphasized.