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Marc Jayson Cayabyab - The Philippine Star
January 14, 2026 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Senate finance committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian urged the executive department to reform the crafting of the National Expenditure Program (NEP) to put an end to the questionable practice of “budget insertions” and “allocables.”
During The STAR’s “Truth On The Line” program yesterday, Gatchalian said the ball is with the executive to ensure that the agencies craft their budget proposals based on the situation on the ground.
According to the senator, the budget was mangled to fund ghost or substandard projects in exchange for kickbacks because of the failure of agencies to implement the long-standing policy of bottom-up budgeting (BUB).
The flood control corruption scandal, he added, happened because these projects were either inserted in the budget during the legislative process, or already included as “allocables” in the NEP spending plan, without going through the Regional Development Council.
“The RDC is hardly new. It is part of the Department of Budget and Management BUB guidelines. The problem is it is not being followed,” Gatchalian said.
“The downside of not going through the RDC is, more often than not, the budget proposal is not coordinated with the agency or local government concerned, which causes problems,” he added.
According to the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev), the RDC is the “highest policy-making body in the region and serves as the counterpart of the (DEPDev) Board at the subnational level.”
Gatchalian said involving mayors, governors and other local government officials, as well as civil society and community groups in the “pre-NEP” process, would ensure that proposed projects and activities won’t end up lost to corruption.
To prevent another flood control scandal, Gatchalian said the 2027 budget process should ensure that all Department of Public Works and Highways projects and other infrastructure works have masterplans, feasibility studies and geotagged coordinates to enable the public to monitor its implementation.
Ending UA must be initiated by executive
As to the P150.9 billion in unprogrammed appropriations (UA) that President Marcos retained after vetoing P92.5 billion, Gatchalian said it was difficult to fulfill his earlier vow that all funds should be programmed in the regular budget.
However, totally deleting the unprogrammed funds can only be made possible if the executive department includes all programs and projects in the regular budget, instead of putting these under UA, which are standby funds that can only be released after excess non-tax revenue and borrowings.
“We tried reducing the P243-billion original UA allocation. But it is not impossible to totally delete it, if it is the executive’s policy decision to absorb all unprogrammed funds into programmed,” Gatchalian said.
Meanwhile, Gatchalian opposed the reduction of infrastructure projects as a means to curb corruption, saying the people and the economy will suffer.
“Corruption cannot be the reason to remove infrastructure programs, or else our people will suffer. The solution for corruption is to jail people, file cases and make them accountable,” he said.
Gatchalian made the statement as the DPWH’s budget was cut to P521 billion this year.
The allocation amounts to about 4.5 percent of gross domestic product, below the five percent level often cited by economists as a benchmark for sustaining infrastructure-led growth and marks the agency’s lowest budget in recent years.
Gatchalian noted that infrastructure spending slowed after controversy surrounding flood control projects, leaving unspent funds that could be carried over into 2026.
“This can’t be a permanent thing. We still need to spend five percent of GDP or more for infrastructure,” he said. — Neil Jayson Servallos, Jose Rodel Clapano
