‘PORK’ INTACT: National budget criticized for being ‘propolitician’

National

FORMER Senate President Franklin Drilon and former finance official Cielo Magno criticized President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s recent vetoes of certain items in the 2025 national budget, arguing that the cuts did not address the budget's flaws and largely left "pork" allocations intact.

Drilon expressed disappointment that despite claims of a thorough review, the P6.326-trillion General Appropriations Act (GAA) still contained significant budgetary issues.

In a 22-page veto message, Marcos reduced the budget by P194 billion, with the majority—around P168.24

billion—targeted at unprogrammed appropriations (UAs).

Notably, Drilon pointed out that many of these cuts were cosmetic and failed to remove the underlying pork barrel allocations.

He emphasized that unprogrammed activities, which are not tied to guaranteed revenues, would continue to leave the door open for discretionary funding.

One of the most contentious items was the bloated P289 billion budget for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which critics said was ripe for corruption.

Marcos vetoed P26 billion of this, but Drilon argued that a substantial portion of the funding remained, thus failing to remove pork barrel spending from the budget.

Magno echoed Drilon's concerns, stressing that the vetoes did little to address the "propolitician" nature of the budget.

She criticized the cuts to essential social programs, such as the P74.4 billion for PhilHealth subsidies and P50 billion for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), while highlighting the retention of programs like the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program, which could be exploited for political gain.

Both Drilon and Magno called for further scrutiny, with Magno suggesting that the constitutionality of certain budget transfers, especially regarding PhilHealth funds, may need to be challenged in court.(CMM)