House leader says no objection to removal of 295 non-compliant infra projects from 2027 budget

MANILA – House Deputy Speaker and National Unity Party (NUP) Chairman Ronaldo Puno said they will “not object” to the Senate’s plan to remove 295 infrastructure projects worth P8.8-billion from the proposed 2027 national budget due to incomplete documentation.

He also expressed support for the Senate leadership’s “no document, no budget” rule for the 2027 General Appropriations Bill.

“There’s no reason why these things will not be documented. Yes, we believe that if it has no documentation, it has no right to be there,” Puno said.

He added that House members from the NUP are willing to disclose the proposed 2027 allocation for projects in their respective districts.

“In fact, today, I made a disclosure and explanation to the People’s Budget Coalition on my district specifically. I have informed them that any congressman in the National Unity Party is willing to provide them with such details… We think anybody in Congress has the obligation to do this,” Puno said.

He and some House members from the NUP met with budget watchdog People’s Budget Coalition on Thursday, where the latter called for the release of supporting documents for all House projects, including its proponents and justification, among others.

The PBC also called for the creation of an online system of public verification for all projects before the Senate approves the budget, “genuinely open” the bicameral conference committee meeting, correct the system of “soft pork” in health, social protection, labor, and education that they say “creates dependence on politicians”, an end to the tradition of parliamentary courtesy in scrutinizing the budget of the Office of the President and the two Houses of Congress, and institutionalize civil society participation and transparency in the budget process.

“All of these will make sure that these gains that we are seeing to prevent another flood control scandal and for the budget to be more responsive to our people’s needs is not just given to the whims of whoever sits in office, pero para gumana ang institusyon natin, para gumana ang demokrasya natin,” PBC’s Kenneth Abante said.

Puno backs the call for no exceptions in the budget scrutiny.

“We think that if we’re going to require line departments to be very transparent and explain in detail their expenditures, maybe it’s not good to have exceptions to the rule. And so therefore, we will support. the efforts of the People’s Budget Coalition to open up also these offices to greater scrutiny, including ours. So, para lahat na lang, huwag na tayong maglagay ng exceptions to the transparency rule. If we’re going to be transparent, let’s be transparent from top to bottom. It is in that context that we agree to the waiver of the parliamentary courtesy rule,” he said. 

On the flagged coordinate errors of eight farm to market roads in the proposed 2027 budget, House Committee on Appropriations Vice Chairperson Rep. Albert Garcia and Member Rep. Mark Enverga said they may still be corrected before the appropriations bill is enacted. 

The House 2027 General Appropriations Bill also has a provision that will allow the Department of Public Works and Highways to modify clerical errors on project details. 

“Para hindi naman masayang ‘yung project. Kasi for all we know, that particular farm-to-market road talagang iniintay ng mga farmers in that locality na talagang makakatulong sa buhay nila. Learning from this mistake in the future, dapat mas maging competent ‘yung ating pag-proofread nitong very voluminous issue. Maybe we can learn from the young ones ng People’s Budget Coalition na ‘yung ating mga members of the agency and the committee gumamit din ng AI to proofread, para hopefully we come up with a perfect version of the budget,” Garcia said.

“Maganda ‘yung paglilinaw ng DA na sa kanila nagmula ‘yung maling coordinates ng ating mga farm-to-market roads… Inaasahan po natin sa ating mga government agencies na ‘pag mag-submit rin naman sila dito, eh tama na ‘yung coordinates na ibinibigay naman nila sa atin, because they have the technical expertise, nasa kanilang mga tao,” Enverga, for his part said.

“Given the number of projects, ‘di malayo, typographical error talaga siya. Pero ‘yun nga, budget natin ‘yan eh. Sa atin nga, pag nagka-typo lang tayo sa tax natin, penalty tayo ng magkano. Tapos kanila, P20 million ‘yung project,” Bettergovph’s technical analyst CJ Sevilla noted.

People’s Budget Coalition Co-Convenor Kenneth Abante said he met with House Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III on Wednesday to raise their group’s concerns on the proposed 2027 national budget, including fears for a “flood control scandal season 2”. 

Abante said the House Speaker gave assurances it won’t happen under his watch. He added that Dy committed to convene the House Committee on Appropriations to tackle the concerns on the national budget, which the PBC raised.

“Not on his watch daw magkakaroon ng Flood Control Scandal Season 2… At we are taking that to heart and we will hold the leadership to that commitment. Kasi we did our job as ordinary citizens to warn the public of what we think is a risk of another flood control scandal, but another type of project maybe. Maybe multi-purpose buildings, maybe irrigation projects, maybe farm-to-market roads. Ang sabi niya, not on my watch that there will be another flood control scandal, dahil ‘yung pamilya niya po ang nakataya dito, ‘yung legasiya niya rin. At sinabi niya po sa akin kahapon na maybe that was the reason why he was installed as Speaker, in order to fix some of these issues,” Abante said.