Stop, thief!

For an agency that is being allocated the lion’s share of the 2025 national budget, at a staggering P1.1 trillion, it’s amazing that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) cannot build and maintain even a 40-kilometer elevated road in Metro Manila.

Instead the national government had to assign the task to the private sector, which of course must collect a toll on the road for a healthy return on investment.

And so, a one-way trip end to end, Alabang-Balintawak, on the Skyway will set you back a total of nearly P430, and that’s just for Class 1 vehicles – cars, sport utility vehicles and big motorcycles.

The DPWH found it necessary to give to the private sector the task of constructing and maintaining even the elevated road connector from Macapagal Boulevard to the NAIA Terminals 1 and 2 – a distance of between two to four kilometers. For this, Class 1 vehicles are charged one-way tolls of P35 to P45.

For delivery trucks, toll rates are always higher. Naturally, such road tolls are passed on to consumers, adding to inflation.

Where do our taxes go? To the fake philanthropy projects of politicians, who ignore guidelines and take credit for aid distribution that is supposed to be implemented solely by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

DSWD Assistant Secretary and spokesperson Irene Dumlao reiterated this guideline last Wednesday, but admitted that it needs fine-tuning.

What do ordinary DSWD personnel do when lawmakers, the governor, mayor and other officials crash an aid distribution event, posting their names and images on huge streamers all over the venue, and posing on stage for photos as the ayuda is handed out?

On One News’ “Storycon” last Wednesday, Dumlao was asked why the bicameral conference committee allotted P21 billion to congressmen and P5 billion to senators for the Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program, when politicians are supposed to have no role in AKAP distribution. Why is there such a division of spoils?

Dumlao withheld comment, pointing out that the 2025 national budget had not yet been signed by President Marcos.

But you can see who stands to benefit from the AKAP funding, based on who are its most vocal defenders – namely, members of the House of Representatives plus a smattering of senators led by Grace Poe, who is getting much of the flak being the chair of the Senate committee on finance.

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As for the DPWH, groups and persons such as former senator Panfilo Lacson and Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong have cited the many ways by which billions in funds for public works are lost to corruption.

Among the favorite conduits for the theft of public funds are flood control projects, whose implementation is difficult to monitor and disbursements tough to audit. How do you assess the completion of river dredging? The best indication that people’s money didn’t go to their stated flood control purpose in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) is the continued serious flooding that regularly hits many parts of the country including Metro Manila.

Other favorites are cat’s eyes or road studs, rockfall netting, and those metal bars that mark bicycle lanes on busy and traffic-choked urban thoroughfares. Those metal bars, installed when people were forced to use bicycles during the pandemic lockdowns due to the acute lack of mass transportation, have outlived their usefulness. These days they merely eat up already limited road space in Metro Manila and pose hazards to vehicles including motorcycles.

Studies conducted by the World Bank have shown that road construction and maintenance projects are among the biggest sources of corruption in developing countries.

An official of the Office of the Ombudsman places the amount lost to corruption at 20 percent of the annual national budget. This could be a conservative estimate.

Much of the annual budget is also allocated to the various creative ways by which lawmakers have circumvented the Supreme Court prohibition on the pork barrel-style earmarking of their pet projects after the GAA has been enacted, with the amounts surging in an election year.

Former finance undersecretary Cielo Magno says the GAA approved by Congress for 2025 has to be “the most corrupt” yet in the nation’s history. BBM’s elder sis, Sen. Imee Marcos, described it as “a very, very bad budget.”

“Dios Co-Poe” is trending – referring to the chair of the House appropriations committee, Rep. Elizaldy Co of Ako Bicol party list, and Grace Poe.

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With the outcry over the Department of Education (DepEd) and health funding being dwarfed by the P1.1-trillion allocation for DPWH, President Marcos has postponed the signing of the GAA, originally scheduled today.

That allocation for DPWH is unconstitutional for being increased by a hefty P288.6 billion from the P825.11 billion proposed in the National Expenditure Program submitted by Malacañang. It is potentially unconstitutional for being higher than the appropriation for the DepEd.

The House fund jugglers clarified that the education sector in fact got a total of P1.055 trillion, but this is still slightly lower than the P1.114 trillion for DPWH. The P1.114 trillion also does not include the additional P1.217 billion for the salary differential of DPWH employees, which means the total is P1.235 trillion.

Included in their computation for the “education sector” are the obvious ones such as the Commission on Higher Education (P34.88 billion) and state universities and colleges (P127.2 billion), along with the Philippine Military Academy and Philippine National Police Academy, plus P60.59 billion for the salary differential for the sector. For the comparison, why is the salary differential computed for the total in the education sector but not for DPWH?

Pressing on with their argument, the congressmen say P82.08 billion of the DPWH allocation is for “convergence projects” – meaning these are infrastructure projects for other departments, including classrooms for DepEd.

Congress, which can cut but not increase the funding proposals of the executive, also added a hefty amount to the new pork barrel, the unprogrammed appropriations.

If the GAA is signed into law by President Marcos, it could constitute assent to culpable violations of the Constitution – an impeachable offense.

Of course the House super majority will not impeach the President. But the political fallout from insensitivity to public outrage could impact not just BBM, but also his candidates in the midterm elections.

After all, the budgeting acrobatics – described by critics as thievery – is seen to be meant for the 2025 campaign, at the expense of taxpayers.