‘Most corrupt national budget’

The good news is that, despite the festive holiday season – one of the longest celebrations in the world – there is public outrage over the audacious insertions and cuts in the 2025 budget.
Hopefully, this public furor will help correct the bad news: Congress’ last-minute tinkering with the government’s funding for next year.

Days ago, President Marcos said he would review items in the budget that were different from what was originally proposed, such as the cut in the Education Department’s budget.

His sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, was right in calling it a “bad budget,” adding that with the current version, its passage must not be rushed.

Retired Associate Justice Antonio Carpio forwarded to me 1SAMBAYAN’s statement strongly condemning what the group calls as “the two most glaring anomalies” in the proposed 2025 budget as approved by the bicameral conference of Congress.

The statement emphasized that the 2025 budget violates the Constitution, which mandates: “The State shall assign the highest budgetary priority to education.”

Indeed, the proposed 2025 General Appropriations Act gives the Department of Public Works and Highways a budget of P1.1 trillion while giving only P737 billion to the Department of Education.

The second glaring violation, 1SAMBAYAN said, is the shocking absence of any budgetary allocation for PhilHealth, in violation of the Constitution, which mandates: “There shall be priority for the needs of the underprivileged, sick, elderly, disabled, women and children. The State shall endeavor to provide free medical care to paupers.”

Bonanza for Congress

Another point raised by the civic society group is the increase in the budget of the House of Representatives by P17.37 billion and the budget of the Senate by P1.1 billion.

“As a result, the budget of the House of Representatives will more than double, while the budget for the AFP Modernization, which is urgently needed to defend the West Philippine Sea, has been reduced by P15 billion from P50 billion,” 1SAMBAYAN said.

As I also pointed out in an earlier column, the proposed 2025 GAA includes an increase of more than P200 billion in the budget of the DPWH, which would only promote graft and corruption in government.

The budget would be used to build more flood control projects, rock netting and similar dubious public works.

These projects, the group said, would largely constitute the politicians’ pork barrel projects, from which they derive commissions of as much as 60 percent.

1SAMBAYAN is recommending that President Marcos convince Congress to reconvene the bicameral conference to correct the glaring anomalies in the proposed 2025 GAA.

What will the President do? As I write this, nothing firm yet except the promise to review the budget.

Laissez-faire

In any case, 1SAMBAYAN said, if this is not corrected, “the proposed 2025 GAA will truly come down as the most corrupt national budget in Philippine history.”

As I said, this would be a litmus test for President Marcos.

His allies in Congress could be taking advantage of his seemingly laissez-faire way of running the government.

But groups like 1SAMBAYAN, led by Justice Carpio, among other convenors, are hoping that a corrupted budget won’t be Marcos’ gift to us this Christmas.

Against this backdrop, a group of retired officers and personnel of the AFP and PNP and UP Vanguards is also calling for an end to “kleptocracy, legalized plunder and corruption.”

Spending within our means

The group, which includes Ret. Col. Hector Tarrazona, said:

“Our projected national revenue for 2025 is P4.583 trillion, yet Congress is budgeting P6.352 trillion, resulting in a deficit of P1.769 trillion. If we continue on this path of excessive spending and borrowing, our government will face bankruptcy.”

“As of October 2024, our national debt stands at P16.02 trillion, projected to reach P20.81 trillion by June 30, 2028.”

They said the government must transition all government construction projects to a public-private partnership model, reduce intelligence and confidential funds, remove overpaid and redundant positions within the government, liquidate perennial loss-making government-owned and -controlled corporations and reduce committee allowances given to lawmakers.

Implementing these measures will help eliminate the excessive proposed P1.1-trillion DPWH budget for 2025 and ensure that we live within our projected national revenue, they said.

Currently, it is estimated that 50 percent to 70 percent of the budget for construction and flood control is lost to corruption, the group said in a post that has been making the rounds on social media.

Rumblings

At a Christmas party recently, someone told me that indeed there are rumblings among retired AFP and PNP officials because they are growing increasingly frustrated over the corruption and political volatility in the country.

Will this lead to more instability next year? I hope not.

As it is now, our beloved nation of 120 million has already been set back by decades in terms of progress.

We can only cry in envy as our Southeast Asian neighbors overtake us like a passing high-speed train. And even that remains non-existent in our country.

A corrupted budget, political volatility and horrendous traffic are just among the many problems we continue to face.

Against this backdrop, I fervently hope President Marcos will rise to the occasion and fix this before it’s too late.

In the meantime, for tonight, as Christmas Eve comes, let’s take a breath and celebrate the season as best we can – with love and grace, and with hope for a better tomorrow.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.