CBCP president urges scrutiny of P190B in House budget insertions

MANILA, Philippines — The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has called on the House to explain the nearly 7,000 infrastructure projects worth P190 billion that were added to the proposed 2027 national budget without publicly available supporting documents.

In a statement on Monday, Oct. 26, CBCP president Bishop Pablo Virgilio David cited the preliminary findings of the People’s Budget Coalition (PBC), presented by its co-convenor Ken Abante before the Senate, on the House-approved version of the proposed P7.2-trillion national budget.

Questionable allocations

The findings raised concerns about the possible recurrence of questionable spending practices following the flood control corruption scandal, for which the country has yet to see full accountability, David said.

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PBC flagged nearly 7,000 infrastructure projects worth P190 billion, including public works projects, new health facilities, farm-to-market roads and irrigation systems.

Some road projects had coordinates pointing to the sea, while some irrigation projects had questionable cost estimates, according to the coalition’s preliminary analysis.

The coalition also identified several congressional districts with large allocations, led by Ilocos Norte’s First District with P4.375 billion.

The figures refer to allocations associated with Department of Public Works and Highways district engineering offices. They do not establish that lawmakers personally proposed the projects or that corruption occurred.

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Full accountability needed

David said the House leadership owed the public an explanation for the questioned allocations and should ensure that the projects were properly justified and documented.

“Has the House of Representatives learned nothing from the flood control corruption scandal? The country has yet to see full accountability for that scandal, and already we are being warned about the possible repetition of the same questionable practices in other government agencies!”

David also emphasized that not all budget insertions were necessarily corrupt, noting that communities need roads, health facilities, irrigation systems and other public infrastructure.

However, he questioned why projects involving billions of pesos in public funds could be approved without documentation necessary for public scrutiny.

He then urged the Senate to fulfill its constitutional duty to scrutinize the proposed budget and remove unjustified insertions.

“The ball is now in the Senate’s court. It must exercise its constitutional responsibility to scrutinize and remove insertions that cannot be properly justified and documented.”

READ: House urged to recall 2027 proposed budget to fix flaws

He also called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to exercise his veto power over questionable allocations that survive congressional deliberations.

Citizens keeping watch

David said Abante and his fellow “Angry Nerds” gave him reason to hope in democratic institutions, praising the citizen volunteers for using data and technology to scrutinize the national budget.

“Together with thousands of citizen volunteers, popularly called the ‘Angry Nerds,’ they are doing something remarkable: scrutinizing our national budget, line by line, project by project, using data and technology to expose questionable allocations of taxpayers’ money,” he said in a social media post.

David expressed gratitude to the volunteers for reminding Filipinos that democracy requires citizens to remain vigilant and hold their representatives accountable between elections. /cb