Metro Manila, Philippines – Responding to concerns from some House lawmakers that funds were allegedly slashed from their districts, senators have clarified that they only removed projects flagged for issues, totaling ₱1.2 billion.
During Day 10 of budget deliberations on Thursday, Nov. 28, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said several district representatives called his office to raise the concern.
“They are anxious and saying that the budget for their districts are being slashed here in the Senate, specifically by [Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and myself,” Sotto said.
“This is unfounded. We have not touched the budget for the districts,” he added, calling the claims “black propaganda.”
Senate finance committee chairman Win Gatchalian later clarified that out of the 6,113 projects under the General Appropriations Bill passed by the House of Representatives, nearly all were adopted—except for 28 projects flagged for duplication or other red flags.
“Itong 28 po, nung pag-review po natin kasama po yung [Department of Public Works and HIghways], meron pong mga duplicate projects. may repetitive projects, may mga projects po na red flags,” Gatchalian said.
[Translation: These 28 projects, when we reviewed them together with the Department of Public Works and Highways, were found to include duplicate projects, repetitive projects, and other projects with red flags.]
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri added that the removed items included DPWH infrastructure projects in various districts that were already part of the National Expenditure Program submitted by the executive branch.
“And then, meron pong mga adjustments sa GAB ang House na hindi naman natin ginalaw,” Gatchalian said.
[Translation: And then, the House made some adjustments to the GAB that we did not touch.]
He said House lawmakers may have misread the Senate Finance Committee report uploaded online, which detailed only the changes—projects that were deleted or added—to the GAB. Projects not listed in the report were retained.
“Hindi pa nagba-bicam, bakbakan na [The bicam hasn’t even started yet, and there’s already a showdown],” Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson remarked, drawing laughter from the session hall.
After passing their respective versions of the proposed ₱6.793-trillion national budget for next year, members of the House and Senate will convene the bicameral conference committee to reconcile differences.
The bicam has long faced criticism for making controversial changes to the budget behind closed doors. Amid the flood control corruption scandal — where lawmakers are under investigation for allegedly inserting funds to obtain kickbacks — the bicam meetings will now be opened to the public for transparency and scrutiny.
