No exceptions in Senate’s review of 2027 budget – Lacson

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo Lacson said there will be no exceptions as the Senate goes “gung-ho” in scrutinizing questionable allocations in the House-approved version of the 2027 General Appropriations Bill (GAB). 

Lacson said that the Senate majority backs Senate finance committee chairman Jose Victor “JV” Ejercito’s move to address suspected red flags in the P7.2 trillion budget bill passed by the House of Representatives.

“Ang attitude namin sa ngayon, gung-ho. Kung masagasaan, masagasaan. Kung magbigay ng exceptions to the rule minsan ang exceptions ang nagiging general rule,” he said during an interview in One News on Friday.

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(Our attitude now is to go gung-ho. If anyone gets hit, so be it. There will be no exceptions, otherwise the exception could become the general rule)

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Lacson confirmed that among those they are set to examine closely is the large allocation of infrastructure budget under the congressional district of Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos.

READ: Ejercito, DPWH agree to drop noncompliant projects from 2027 budget

Ejercito earlier asked for complete documentary requirements and justifications for 6,271 infrastructure projects under the 2027 GAB from the newly appointed Public Works and Highways Secretary Giovanni Lopez.

“Kasi pag nagkaroon tayo ng exception to the rules maraming hihingi ng exceptions. Tapos di yan mag-succeed kasi diyan nagsisimula. Pag may tinitingnan at di tinitingnan diyan magsisimula ang pagba-bargain,” Lacson explained.

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(If we make exceptions, many will ask for exceptions and we won’t succeed because that will be the start of bargaining.)

The Senate is set to resume its plenary sessions on Nov. 9, where the senators will deliberate the budget bill for next year.

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Lacson said that the civil society organizations may be invited to personally monitor the bicameral conference committee proceedings and “shame” lawmakers who made questionable budget insertions.

“Hindi lang maging vigilant kundi mag-resort na sa shaming. Kasi minsan talagang wala na ring kahihiyan ang iba. Pagkatapos ng flood control project anomalies, ghost projects, eto na naman tayo kanya kanyang singitan,” said Lacson.

(We must not just be vigilant. We may have to resort to shaming because there are those who are shameless in making insertions, and we are still reeling from the flood control scandal.)

Lacson added that the Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office (LBRMO) is already reviewing subcommittee reports and expected to be completed as they resume the plenary session.

“Para pagdating sa plenary nakakamada na yan at dun kami mag introduce ng amendments. At pwede naming kaltasin ang lumobo sa HGAB,” he said.

(Once the plenary sessions resume, the LBRMO would have finished its review and we can introduce amendments to restore the changes the House made to its version of the General Appropriations Bill.) 

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He further called for the re-engineering of the budget process, starting with the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC), to address what he described as “political patronage” in the proceedings.  /gsg