Congress urged to scrap standby fund

UNPROGRAMMED APPROPRIATIONS (UA) should no longer receive funding while their constitutionality remains pending before the Supreme Court (SC), House Senior Deputy Minority Leader Leila M. de Lima said after the Cabinet approved the proposed 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP).

“As long as the SC has not issued a ruling on the constitutionality of the UA, opportunities for corruption in the budget — just like what happened in the anomalous flood control projects — will continue to persist,” Ms. de Lima told BusinessWorld via Viber chat over the weekend.

“Until the Supreme Court resolves this issue, we will continue to call Congress not to allocate funds for it. Truly necessary items should be included in the National Budget, while others should go through special appropriations that will still undergo scrutiny by Congress,” she added in Filipino.

On Friday, Malacañang said President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s Cabinet approved the Department of Budget and Management’s (DBM) proposed 2027 NEP.

The DBM’s National Budget Memorandum No. 158, issued on June 25, outlined a proposed P7.200-trillion national budget for 2027, equivalent to 21.7% of gross domestic product. The amount is P407 billion, or 6% higher than this year’s P6.793-trillion national budget.

Over the past three years, petitions have been filed before the SC questioning provisions of the 2024, 2025 and 2026 General Appropriations Acts, including the legality of unprogrammed appropriations and alleged unconstitutional budget amendments.

“As seen in previous years, there has been grave abuse of discretion in the use of unprogrammed funds, as this practice is tantamount to undue delegation of Congress’ power of the purse to the Executive,” Ms. de Lima said.

The DBM has maintained that the UA is constitutional and may only be released under conditions specified by law. 

Analysts said greater transparency throughout the budget process would help insulate the proposed 2027 budget from legal challenges.

“Like others before it, this budget was made with little adherence to transparency. As of today, the public has no clue what’s in it. Public participation should’ve started from the moment the budget call was made,” Michael Henry Ll. Yusingco, senior research fellow at the Ateneo Policy Center told BusinessWorld via a Facebook messenger chat.

“We know what happens to public funds when budget allocations are done behind closed doors. We can’t allow insertions and similar schemes to ever happen again. We can’t trust both the Executive and Legislative. Media must assert itself to ensure public interest prevails,” he added.

Ederson DT. Tapia, a political science professor at the University of Makati, said lawmakers should institutionalize greater transparency by publishing all congressional amendments in real time, identifying their proponents and justifications, and making bicameral deliberations publicly accessible.

“The 2027 budget should be an opportunity to rebuild public trust in the budget process. That means going beyond compliance and institutionalizing transparency,” he told BusinessWorld in a separate Facebook chat.

He also called for a publicly accessible comparison between the Executive’s proposed National Expenditure Program and the final General Appropriations Act, saying this would make all insertions, deletions and fund realignments fully traceable. Mr. Tapia said that bicameral conference committee deliberations and supporting budget documents should likewise be made readily available to the public instead of limiting disclosure to the enacted budget.

Joy G. Aceron, convenor-director at transparency advocacy group G-Watch, said the government’s limited fiscal space next year makes prioritization and accountability even more important.

“More than ever, the budget must be accompanied with corruption prevention measures,” she said, noting that the DBM could use Commission on Audit findings in identifying programs vulnerable to inefficiency and corruption during budget preparation.

Ms. Aceron added that the DBM should clarify whether the proposed 2027 budget retains unprogrammed appropriations, saying she hoped these “are already removed, along with other pork.” — Erika Mae P. Sinaking