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December 9, 2025 | 12:02pm
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos delivers his speech during the State of the Nation Address at the House of Representatives in Manila on July 28, 2025.
AFP / Ted Aljibe
MANILA, Philippines — With corruption allegations swirling around Congress, a budget watchdog called on lawmakers to uphold the transparency it promised by revealing line-by-line amendments, their proponents and the so-called "allocables" before the bicameral conference committee meets.
On Tuesday, December 9, the Bantay Budget Network issued a statement detailing four specific demands for document disclosure concerning the 2026 General Appropriations Bill (GAB).
First, the group urged the House and Senate to publicize all amendments to the budget bill and the lawmakers who proposed them. It also called for disclosure of the "allocables," which critics consider a new form of pork barrel, with amounts earmarked as early as the National Expenditure Program or within the bill itself.
According to a report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos and former House Speaker Martin Romualdez — the president’s son and cousin — were the top recipients of "allocables" for infrastructure projects in the first half of the Marcos Jr. administration.
From 2023 to 2025, Sandro's district (Ilocos Norte, 1st District) received an average of P5.25 billion per year, totaling P15.79 billion in allocables from the National Expenditure Program alone.
Romualdez closely followed, with Leyte’s first district receiving an average annual allocation of P4.8 billion, amounting to roughly P14.43 billion in allocables in the span of three years alone. Meanwhile, other district congressmen only received allocables ranging from P1 to P10 billion.
Bantay Budget’s second demand, on the other hand, calls for a detailed breakdown of unprogrammed appropriations, or standby funds, which are used for priority programs separate from the Office of the President’s budget.
Third, the public should be informed of any last-minute insertions or agency-level realignments, where funds are shifted from one program to another across agencies.
Lastly, the watchdog said all reports, tables, and figures to be used by the bicameral committee should be made public on the websites of the House of Representatives and Senate before hearings begin.
"The people must be fully aware of these decisions — especially when education, health, agriculture, housing, and disaster response remain severely underfunded," the group said.
Bantay Budget also stressed the need for Congress to clearly disclose all budget changes, including increases, cuts and realignments, and ensure the information is available to the public and media after bicameral hearings, in line with long-standing promises made by the budget chairs and legislative leadership.
"A democratic budget requires public scrutiny, citizen participation, and open access to information — not closed-door negotiations that conceal billions in questionable allocations," it added.
