Ex-lawmaker: Impeach moves vs Marcos gain traction due to systemic abuses

National

FORMER congressman Mike Defensor on Wednesday, Jan. 28, offered a sweeping account of why efforts to impeach President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. have gained traction.

He pointed to what he alleged were systemic abuses in the national budget process and a failure of existing accountability mechanisms.

In a press conference, Defensor said impeachment has emerged as the only constitutional route to make a sitting president answer serious accusations, since criminal and administrative cases cannot be filed against the President while in office.

Defensor traced the roots of the impeachment push to what he described as the collapse of the “unity” narrative that defined the 2022 elections, recalling how tensions between President Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte surfaced early in the administration.

“For us to improve, for the Philippines to progress, the country needed unity,” Defensor said, adding that political infighting returned within the first year of the Marcos presidency.

He said concerns raised privately to people close to the President in 2023 about alleged corruption and governance issues went unaddressed, prompting a deeper scrutiny of budget practices.

At the center of Defensor’s allegations is the use of so-called unprogrammed appropriations—funds that, by law, should only be released when the government posts excess revenues.

Defensor claimed that from 2022 to 2025, unprogrammed allocations could reach as much as ₱2 trillion, higher than official estimates cited by other officials ranging from ₱1.5 trillion to ₱1.7 trillion.

He questioned how such funds could exist, given that the national budget relies heavily on borrowing and is not revenue-balanced.

“How could there be an unprogrammed allocation when the budget is not balanced?” he asked.

He further alleged that large portions of these funds were funneled into flood control projects that, according to him, were used to conceal “ghost projects”—claims he described as unprecedented in scale. These allegations remain unproven and have not been ruled on by any court.

Defensor also revisited testimony aired during a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing, recounting statements made by a former military security aide who claimed to have transported large sums of money to various locations linked to political figures.

He said the witness initially sought protective custody but later recanted portions of his testimony, allegedly after his family was threatened.

Defensor argued that the Senate probe should have continued and expanded to include other individuals named in the testimony.

The perceived halt of the investigation, he said, reinforced the belief among impeachment proponents that institutional remedies had failed.

Defensor criticized what he described as the diversion of funds from PhilHealth and the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation (PDIC), arguing that these weakened healthcare and financial safety nets meant to protect ordinary Filipinos.

“PhilHealth is supposed to strengthen healthcare support, especially for the poor,” he said, questioning the legality and morality of tapping its funds for other uses.

He also linked alleged budget manipulation to delays in major infrastructure projects, including railways and transport corridors, warning that stalled projects expose the government to loan penalties and long-term economic costs.

Defensor emphasized that the impeachment effort rests on constitutional grounds, including graft and corruption, bribery, culpable violation of the Constitution, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes.

He stressed that impeachment is a political and constitutional process designed to compel accountability at the highest level of government.

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is facing two impeachment complaints, both of which were referred to the House Committee on Justice on January 26.(TGP)