‘Marcos should regain control of national budget’

MANILA, Philippines —  President Marcos should regain control of the budget process, former Senate president Franklin Drilon said yesterday, noting that alignments made by Congress resulted in a “mangled” and the “most corrupt” budget he has ever seen.

“I was in the Senate for 24 years. I looked at the budget for 24 years. This is the most corrupt. They (lawmakers) really mangled the budget and the executive branch can no longer recognize it,” Drilon said in Filipino over “Storycon” on One News.

“Regardless of the legalities of what has happened, the most important thing is that the President has lost control over the budget (process)… This is evident because the budget was mangled and the funds that were supposed to fund the programs necessary to move our economy disappeared,” Drilon added.

He said lawmakers “went overboard” when they moved some of the programs proposed by Malacañang to unprogrammed appropriations to fund their own projects.

“They (executive branch) can no longer recognize what the economic managers crafted in the National Expenditure Program,” he said, referring to the original budget proposal submitted by Malacañang to Congress.

Drilon, a former justice and executive secretary who served four non-consecutive terms in the Senate, said Marcos “has lost control over his own economic programs” as reflected in the approved budget or the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

“I urge the President: recover that control for the good of the country,” he added.

The former Senate president said Marcos can do this by making sure that the releases of the funds “are proper,” such as by realigning the budget to fund programs that were defunded by lawmakers.

Despite his criticisms of the 2025 budget, Drilon said it would be difficult for critics to challenge the constitutionality of the 2025 GAA based on the supposed blank items in the bicameral conference committee report.

“For me, the General Appropriations Act is valid and the supposed blanks in the bicameral conference report cannot be used to invalidate (it),” he said.

What matters, he said, is the printed and enrolled copy that was submitted to the President. It contains a certification signed by the Senate President and the Speaker stating that the legislative process was followed in crafting the bill.

“That is binding for everyone. The President cannot (look behind that certification) and say that there are deficiencies in the bicam report,” he added.

Allies of former president Rodrigo Duterte, including Davao City 3rd District Rep. Isidro Ungab and former executive secretary Vic Rodriguez, questioned the 2025 budget based on the blank items in the bicameral conference report.

‘Be transparent’

The hearing of the bicameral conference committee on the annual national budget must be made open to the public to ensure “transparency,” former senator Panfilo Lacson urged on Tuesday.

In an interview with Storycon on One News, Lacson said that is one of the budget reforms that he wants to push if he is elected again to the Senate in the May 12 mid-term elections.

Lacson said that his former staff reported to him that the “unused appropriations” in the annual GAA of the government is not “changing, not decreasing.”

Lacson said he had filed twice a Senate resolution calling to open to the public the bicameral conference meeting when it comes to the government’s national budget.

“Let’s put minutes, transcript of the meeting. Open it to the gallery, open it to the public and open it even to the media. But it did not pass,” Lacson said.

He added that the worst increase in the “unused appropriations” of the national budget was in 2016, when it reached almost P600 billion.

“It was repeated, I think in 2023, which is under P450 billion. If we will average it in the past eight years, the unused appropriations stemmed from the tradition of insertions,” Lacson said.

He said the culprit in the unused appropriations was when lawmakers made realignments without even consulting the concerned government agencies that will utilize and implement the project.

House TWG at fault

Congress is at fault for allowing the Technical Working Group (TWG) of its contingent in the bicameral conference committee to fill up the blank portion of the GAA of 2025, Lacson added.

He said any substantial corrections in the approved version of the national budget in the bicam should be made in the plenary, not by anyone in the TWG.

Lacson said that Malacañang has no accountability in the controversy involving the blank bicam report, since what was signed by President Marcos was the version corrected by the House, headed by acting House committee on appropriations chairperson and Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo that contained no blank portion.

“I agree with senator Tito Sotto, that some of our lawmakers should review the parliamentary procedures because when the amendment is substantial, especially when you change the figures, for example P1 billion will be missing, then the technical working group will fill it up, that is not a typographical error or ministerial amendment that you can delegate to the technical working group,” Lacson said.

“Whenever the changes are substantial, the amendment or changes must be done on the floor, and the approval should be in the plenary. It cannot be done outside the plenary,” he added.

That is why the proposition of acting house committee chairperson Quimbo that having blank portions in bicam is OK because she told the technical working group, but who approved it? If we will follow the proper process, it cannot be done. The bicam has to be constituted again,” Lacson further said.

Lacson said the Senate was negligent while Malacañang is absolved in the controversy.

“The House was at fault because nobody stood and questioned it when they see that there are blank portions in the bicam report. The malice is within the House because they are the ones who printed it,” Lacson said. –  Jose Rodel Clapano