Let the people who know best about what they need decide on what projects should be implemented in their respective areas.
In the forthcoming 2026 General Appropriations Act and beyond, Senator Francis ‘Chiz’ Escudero said this should be the guiding principle in proposing infrastructure projects, and their inclusion in the national budget, and in the release of funds for their implementation.
‘With the many problems with government infrastructure projects – including the substandard and ‘ghost’ flood control projects – there’s really a need to arrive at a sound solution so that tax payers’ money is not lost on anomalies,’ Escudero explained, partly in Filipino.
The veteran legislator explained that most, if not all, of the abuses committed with regard to the funding of infrastructure projects, are the result of the arbitrary moves of legislators, in connivance with officials in the Executive branch, to introduce items that never passed scrutiny at any point of the budget process.
‘This is the very issue being raised with regard to insertions in the budget,’ said Escudero, who noted that these projects came out of nowhere and were included in the national budget without anyone really knowing if they were feasible, needed or even real.
An examination of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) before 2025, alongside the examinations conducted by the Commission on Audit, would reveal the presence of ghost projects and other anomalies in the implementation of infrastructure projects.
Escudero has proposed a solution, one that is so simple and obvious that it would seem impossible that it has not been done before.
In the proposed Grassroots Infrastructure Planning and Budgeting Act filed by Escudero, all infrastructure projects must have prior endorsement of the Regional Development Council and either the Provincial Development Council or the City/Municipal Development Council and their respective Sanggunian before these are included in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the President to Congress.
‘From the NEP [crafting phase] alone, no project that is not needed by the province or the country should be allowed to be included. Only the priority and really essential projects should be in the NEP,’ Escudero said, partly in Filipino.
‘The endorsement of our local government units is even more important for the projects pursued by lawmakers as an amendment – often included in the GAA or the final budget version that the President signs into law,’ he added.
The bill states that the prior endorsement of the RDCs and/or the local governing bodies is a requisite or condition sine qua non (absolutely indispensable) for the inclusion of any infrastructure project in the GAA and for the subsequent release of any allotment for its implementation.
‘If there is no endorsement or approval by the RDC, no money should be released by the DBM for any project,’ Escudero said. The senator from Bicol urged his colleagues in the Senate and the House of Representatives to prioritize the approval of this measure as it will address the issues that have been dominating the national conversation and strengthen the reforms that are being introduced with respect to the budget process.