"Hindi Na Sila Nahiya": A Call for the House to End Pork Barrel Politics in the Budget

"Hindi Na Sila Nahiya": A Call for the House to End Pork Barrel Politics in the Budget

Joint Statement by the People’s Budget Coalition and Roundtable for Inclusive Development on the House General Appropriations Bill Third Reading for Fiscal Year 2027 (House Bill No. 10858)

12 October 2026

Media Contact: Ynez Ventura (+63 917 838 7145)

Sanggol at nanay na naghihintay ng saklolo sa bubong. Lolang ginawang salbabida ang refrigerator sa baha. Magsasakang tulala dahil sa mga aanihing lumubog. Ilang libong buhay, kabuhayan, at kabahayan ang kinuha sa ‘tin ng mga pagbaha noong 2024.

Ayaw naming kutkutin ang mga sugat natin, pero binabangungot tayo at kailangan nating magising.

Nabasa na natin ang kwento at napakadilim ng ending nito. And yet, as the House crafts its version of the national budget, we find ourselves confronting a familiar darkness: closed doors, sidelined citizens, and decisions over public funds made without the meaningful participation of the people who will pay for them.

Para tayong nagsusulat ng Season 2 ng flood control scandal.

The Trillion Peso March and Baha Sa Luneta Rallies that followed the scandal made one thing clear: galit na ang mga tao. Galit na ang mga tao dahil patuloy na ginagawang tila personal wallet ng mga kongresista ang national budget na dapat sana’y Pilipino ang nakikinabang. Hindi na nahiya, hindi na natuto.

Imbis na linisin ang budget ngayong taon, lalo pang dumumi. The House of Representatives has once again inserted billions into programs that perpetuate political patronage like DSWD AICS, DOH MAIFIP, and DOLE TUPAD and doubled local infrastructure programs in the DPWH without publicly verifiable programs of work or attachments. Para mapagbigyan ang mga kapritsong ng House, binawasan ang budget para sa edukasyon, transportasyon, kalusugan, at oras ng kalamidad.

The House moved ₱199 billion inside the budget without the amendments report required by its own rules, in a bill of almost 4,000 pages that reached its own members at 1:57 in the morning and was approved that same evening.

Nawalan na kami ng tiwala sa House and these figures show why:

1. Harap-harapan tayong niloloko. Iba ang numerong pinakita sa publiko, iba ang totoong in-approve ng House. On October 1, the amendments panel read out its proposed changes to the national budget during a livestream, totaling ₱116 billion. Yet, when the committee report was released on October 6, the total had ballooned to over ₱200 billion in changes with no accompanying explanation or accounting of the over ₱84 billion in additional amendments. We’ve been misled and many news reports continue to cite ₱116 billion. This is the evil we warned about: A livestream does not equate to transparency.

2. Sa bawat ₱100 ng national budget, higit ₱15 ang ayuda at kaduda-duda. ₱1,060 billion of the House budget now sits in red-flag items. These are budget lines that are prone to political patronage and abuse: ₱210 billion in aid and discretionary funds, ₱695 billion in infrastructure, ₱43 billion for political offices, and ₱112 billion in unprogrammed appropriations. The House added ₱83.5 billion to these. The patronage group alone grew by half, from ₱140 billion to ₱210 billion. These allocations entrench pork barrel politics, where politicians control access to services, robbing people of dignity and forcing them to beg for benefits they are entitled to under the law.

3. Tinataga na tayo sa insertions, mas lalo pa tayong nilulubog ng House sa utang. What the House cut to pay for this matters as much as what it added. The biggest cut, ₱130 billion, fell on foreign-assisted projects: the Metro Manila Subway, the North-South Commuter Railway, bypass roads, and flood mitigation in major river basins. These are loans which the country has already signed. Cutting the budget does not cancel the loan. It delays the project and the country pays more than a billion pesos in commitment fees and penalties. What the House did was take the borrowing room set aside for trains and national roads and use it for hand-outs and local projects.

“Wala nang fiscal space.” Yan ang laging sagot ng House sa bawat panukala ng mga magsasaka, mamamalakaya, komyuter, at estudyante para sa mga makabuluhang programa. Pero para sa mga multi-purpose buildings, access roads, at ayuda, may nakutkot na higit sa P200 billion. Ano ba ang totoo? Hindi dapat nanlilimos ang taumbayan. Hindi dapat nakasalalay sa utang na loob ang pagtanggap ng serbisyong karapatan namin. We demand that the ayuda budget be reallocated to rules-based social protection, health, education, agriculture, disaster response, and public transportation, which the House cut or left untouched.

The DPWH published its proposed projects online, one by one, with publicly verifiable documents and attachments. The DBM is working with civil society to improve its budget transparency system. The President signed off on these efforts. The Senate has opened its doors to budget monitors. None of them are perfect, but all of them are trying.

But the House is not; the House is regressing. By refusing to digitize the budget process, the House has made monitoring work difficult.

We in the People’s Budget Coalition, BetterGov.PH, and our People’s Budget Research Alliance with universities have worked through sleepless nights to compare every line item across the NEP and the House second reading and third reading versions.

We are making these datasets public so that journalists, citizens, and fellow advocates can independently scrutinize and verify every line item. You may access them via these links:

• Overview of changes between the NEP and the House version: https://ajamontesa.github.io/ph-budget-analysis/hgab-2027-assessment.html#28_DPWH:_what_moved_inside_the_department

• Table comparing changes in 16,000+ DPWH projects (NEP vs. H-GAB 2nd vs. H-GAB 3rd): https://csiiiv.github.io/DPWH-NEP-HB-2027-ANALYSIS/app/#compare?view=paps

• Ten areas for further study by analysts: https://csiiiv.github.io/DPWH-NEP-HB-2027-ANALYSIS/app/#highlights

• Table comparing allocations per congressional district: https://research.bettergov.ph/static/nep-preview/congress.html

• (For technical analysts) Eight partial and unofficial flags for public works, farm to market roads, irrigation, and health facilities: https://research.bettergov.ph/static/nep-preview/

Meanwhile, we call on the branches of government to check the abuses of the House.

To DBM Secretary Kim De Leon and all Executive agencies, we call on you to defend your 2027 proposed budget against this bastardized House version. The latter disregards your vision and meticulously prepared plans for the following year. We call on you to do your part: to account for these insertions, disclose what cannot or should not be implemented, and be transparent with the Filipino people.

To DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon, we call on you to check the House’s version of the budget and determine which of these are truly science-based. After the nightmare of the flood control scandal, we believe in your leadership and your sincere efforts to restore public trust in the process. But your efforts risk being wasted in the face of the House’s overwhelmingly mangled budget. The agency cannot rebuild public trust while being made to carry a budget whose changes it cannot adequately explain or defend.

The House has likely: inserted 5,804 new projects worth P162 billion, deleted 1,068 projects worth P68 billion, increased 203 projects in the NEP worth P5 billion, and decreased 206 projects in the NEP worth P87 billion.

Compared to the NEP which had 11,420 projects worth P573 billion, the House 3rd reading version has 16,275 total allocations worth P587 billion.

To the Senate, especially Finance Committee Chair JV Ejercito and Senate President Win Gatchalian, our hope rests with your chamber. We call on you to exercise your power of scrutiny: hold the House accountable for every amendment, restore funding for the people’s priorities that were cut or neglected, and reject any amendment that comes without a clear, complete, and publicly accessible report. We will work with you tirelessly so that the opacity and darkness of the House does not reach the halls of the Senate.

To President Marcos Jr., we call on you to veto amendments that cannot withstand public scrutiny. Delete any insertion that reaches your desk: those without a clear project list, supporting documents, or a defensible justification. A lean, implementable, and accountable budget is better than a bloated one that repeats the very practices that gave birth to the flood control scandal.

Sinabihan po ninyo ang mga may pakana ng flood control scandal na “mahiya naman kayo.” Pero hindi sila nahiya. We call on you to complete what you started. Defend the budget your administration proposed. Direct the DBM and your Cabinet to publicly account for the changes made to your proposed budget and speak up for the agencies and essential programs whose funding was cut or left unaddressed. Do not let the reforms you promised end where political accountability begins. You wield the power to reject these unjustifiable insertions.

To every citizen, demand answers. Join us in scrutinizing every project. Ask your representatives what happened to theè programs that matter to your communities, why essential services were left underfunded, and who stands to benefit from amendments that cannot be publicly justified. Do not allow billions in unexplained changes to pass without scrutiny. Our taxes are not political favors. Our national budget cannot be anyone’s personal wallet.

We insist that legislators do their sworn duty: exercise the power of the purse responsibly. We demand:

1. An end to pork barrel politics. Either transform programs vulnerable to political capture into transparent, rules-based programs, or scrap them altogether. No lump sum should be released without a published project list.

2. A full public accounting of every amendment. Publish every increase, every cut, and the name of the legislator who proposed it, as the House's own rules require. A livestream is not a report.

3. A restoration of funds for what people receive by right. This includes (a) rules-based social protection such as the 4Ps and PhilHealth; (b) disaster response, vaccines, health facilities, and classrooms; (c) meaningful support for farmers and fisherfolk; and (d) public transport.

4. Independent scrutiny of the budget by citizens. Pass the CADENA Act—which has been languishing in the House for nine months after Senate approval—and publish the budget as open data at every stage. Last year we asked the House to build an open budget transparency server. It did not. Civil society is now building its own, along with the Senate.

Public office is a public trust. Every peso misused for political gain betrays that trust. Sawa na ang Pilipino sa bulok na sistema ng national budget. Kaya na nating ituro kung saan at ano ang bulok sa sistemang ito: by page number and by peso amount. We refuse to let our 2027 budget become a playground for patronage and corruption again, one year after a trillion-peso flood scandal.

Buwis natin ito. Boto natin ito. Budget natin ito.

Appendix A. The Coalition’s Calls Before the 3rd Reading and Approval of the House General Appropriations Bill

1. The more than ₱200 billion in House amendments must be fully explained, line by line and proponent by proponent.

   1. The House kept the ₱7.2 trillion total. Inside it, it raised 123 budget lines by ₱198.9 billion and cut 87 others by the same amount.
   2. The changes the amendments panel read out on its 1 October livestream added up to ₱116.3 billion. The committee report of 6 October carries more than ₱200 billion. The panel also never said what would be cut to pay for its additions. About ₱83 billion in changes was never announced. Almost all of it is in the DPWH, where the panel announced a net increase of ₱11.5 billion but the bill adds ₱98 billion to some lines and takes ₱86 billion from others.
   3. House rules require the Budget Amendments Review Subcommittee to publish a detailed report of all increases and decreases, including the proponent-legislator. No report was released. [check: Rule IX, Sec. 28(d)]
   4. The substitute bill of almost 4,000 pages reached members at 1:57 AM and civil society at 5 AM. Plenary opened at 5 PM and approved it by 8:30 PM. Members said on the floor that their staff had to use AI chatbots to read it.
   5. The plenary rejected two transparency amendments: one to publish how the House spends its own budget, including amounts spent per member, and one to publish the list of DPWH projects in every congressional district.

2. Patronage-based programs worth nearly ₱210 billion in the House version must be converted into rules-based, transparent social protection programs such as the 4Ps and PhilHealth.

   1. The House increased DSWD AICS by +₱24.8 billion to ₱58.0 billion, DOH MAIFIP by +₱24.0 billion to ₱48.2 billion, and DOLE TUPAD by +₱4.6 billion to ₱18.9 billion. MAIFIP nearly doubled. The House also added ₱10 billion for the Presidential Assistance to Farmers and Fisherfolk and ₱1.8 billion for Tulong Dunong, which need clear eligibility rules so they do not become pork.
   2. This is the second straight year. In the 2026 budget, the House added +₱32 billion to AICS, +₱26.7 billion to MAIFIP, and +₱14.8 billion to TUPAD. The Executive submits a lean proposal, and the House inflates it.
   3. Meanwhile, the House added nothing to the 4Ps (₱99.1 billion), PhilHealth (₱74.5 billion), the social pension, the food stamp program, crop insurance, and palay procurement. Transport fuel relief received about ₱1.5 billion. Fuel assistance for farmers and fisherfolk received nothing.
   4. We are not against assistance. We are against assistance that depends on a politician's endorsement. If Congress wants to add ₱49 billion in aid, it must make it an entitlement with clear eligibility rules.
   5. Confidential and intelligence funds (₱10.9 billion), the NTF-ELCAC barangay program (₱9.7 billion), and the Local Government Support Fund (raised by +₱4.1 billion to ₱62.6 billion, through financial assistance to local government units) remain opaque and prone to abuse. With unprogrammed appropriations under challenge at the Supreme Court, this fund is becoming the new channel for discretionary projects. Confidential funds must be limited to agencies with clear security mandates, starting with the Office of the President. [check amount]

3. The ₱219 billion in lump-sum local infrastructure in the DPWH must not be released without a published project list.

   1. The House more than doubled multi-purpose buildings from ₱41.0 billion to ₱83.7 billion, and raised access roads from ₱105.7 billion to ₱134.9 billion. The House also added ₱3.6 billion for farm-to-market roads in the Department of Agriculture, from ₱16.0 billion to ₱19.6 billion.
   2. It took the money from nationally planned projects: the national road network (-₱54.6 billion), flood control (-₱7.4 billion), health facilities (-₱4.5 billion), and classrooms (-₱3.1 billion).
   3. The DPWH Central Office lost ₱42.3 billion, while district engineering offices gained ₱53.7 billion. Their share of the DPWH budget rose from about 20% to 28%.
   4. The gains are uneven. The Ilocos Norte 1st District Engineering Office went from ₱414 million to ₱4.8 billion, almost 12 times its original budget. It is now the best-funded district office in the country. The largest gains by province are in Ilocos Norte (+₱4.6 billion), Isabela (+₱3.9 billion), Batangas (+₱3.0 billion), Iloilo (+₱2.8 billion), and Quezon (+₱2.2 billion).
   5. There is no project list and no breakdown by office. Lump sums, district-level discretion, and no public record of what will be built: these are the same conditions that enabled the flood control corruption.

4. The ₱130 billion cut from foreign-assisted projects must be restored, and must not return quietly as unprogrammed appropriations.

   1. The House cut 20 foreign-assisted project lines and raised none. These fell from ₱414.8 billion to ₱284.8 billion, which is 65% of all House cuts.
   2. Bypass roads fell from ₱80.9 billion to ₱27.4 billion. The Metro Manila Subway lost ₱19.7 billion and the North-South Commuter Railway lost ₱15.0 billion.
   3. These loans are already signed. Cutting the appropriation does not cancel them. It delays the projects, and the country pays commitment fees on money it is not using, while commuters wait longer for trains.
   4. Development assistance is the government’s most cost-effective financing mechanism. But instead of effectively utilizing these loans, we will continue to pay billions of pesos in commitment fees, which have grown 70.5% annually from 2017 to 2024, for the unused portions for these loans.
   5. If we choose to fund foreign-assisted projects through unprogrammed appropriations, we will inflate national debt and directly undermine our country’s fiscal stability.
   6. We ask the Senate and the bicameral conference to watch that these projects do not reappear as unprogrammed appropriations, the usual parking lot for displaced items. Congress did this at the bicameral conference in 2024 and 2025.

5. The cuts to disaster response, health, and pensions must be reversed.

6. The House cut ₱7.75 billion from the ₱14.67 billion Disaster Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Assistance Program for LGUs, a window the bicam created in the 2026 budget with no allocation formula and no project list. It should finish the job: remove the remaining ₱6.92 billion and realign it to the regular NDRRM Fund lines or to rules-based social protection, with published release criteria. The regular calamity fund is ₱29.25 billion in the House version, above this year’s ₱24.5 billion; what it lacks is not money but clearer rules for releasing it.

7. It cut ₱4.9 billion from DOH immunization and family health commodities, more than half of that line, and ₱2.0 billion, four-fifths, from Health Promotion.

8. It cut ₱10 billion from the Pension and Gratuity Fund.

9. In the same bill, the House raised its own budget by ₱5.0 billion. This brings the budget of Congress from ₱27.0 billion to ₱32.0 billion.

10. Frontline agencies and sectors must not be made to pay for pork.

    1. The House cut the DepEd budget by ₱6.2 billion from the President's proposal of ₱916.8 billion. The education budget remains far from the benchmark of 4.0% of GDP.
    2. A proposal to restore ₱7.68 billion in cuts affecting 49 state universities and colleges was rejected in plenary.
    3. The amendments panel announced ₱4.09 billion in additions for irrigation. In the bill, the National Irrigation Administration ends ₱1.18 billion below the President's proposal.
    4. The Land Tenure Security Program of the Department of Agrarian Reform was cut by ₱800 million, with only ₱100 million left for land acquisition.
    5. The Commission on Human Rights did not receive the ₱2.7 billion budget it was promised during budget briefings.
    6. For the full list of proposals from our civil society members, we attach the interpellation questions and budget proposals of the People's Budget Coalition's sectors. (Appendix B)

Appendix B. Key line items to watch in the 2027 budget

Amounts in billions of pesos. Source: PBC assessment of the House GAB (HB 10858, Committee Report of 6 October 2026).

[1] Appendix B. Key line items to watch in the 2027 budget

Signatures as of October 12, 2026, 9 am

Organizations

1. People's Budget Coalition
2. Roundtable for Inclusive Development
3. Move As One Coalition
4. Green Party of the Philippines - Kalikasan Muna
5. Kabataan Para Sa Kalikasan - KALIKAS / Green Youth PH - GYP
6. Bayanihan Para Sa Kalikasan Movement, Inc.
7. Amplify-Ed Budget Initiative
8. Make It Safer Movement
9. Living Laudato Si’ Philippines
10. Bunyog Party
11. Green Convergence
12. Negrosanon Initiative for Climate and the Environment (NICE)
13. Alliance of Women for Action Towards Reform
14. Bisig Pilipinas - Tagaytay City and Cavite
15. PHINMA Education
16. Makati Business Club
17. Samahan ng Nagkakaisang Pamilya ng Pantawid (SNPP)

Individuals (Petition Drafters)

1. Mary Abigail B. Modales, Coordinator, People’s Budget Coalition - taxpayer, maka-taong budget advocate, at active transport advocate
2. Kenneth Isaiah Ibasco Abante, Co-Convenor, People’s Budget Coalition - budget transparency, participation, and accountability advocate
3. AJ Montesa, Co-Convenor, People’s Budget Coalition

Roundtable for Inclusive Development (Petition co-organizers)

4. Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David, Co-Convenor

5. Ramon R. Del Rosario, Jr., Co-Convenor

6. Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas

7. Franklin M. Drilon

8. Narzalina Lim

9. Gus Lagman

10. Tess Lagman

11. Lito Tayag

12. Joey Cuisia

13. Cynthia Bautista

14. Chito Salazar

15. Butch Abad

16. Babes Singson

17. Emmanuel Rapadas

18. Allan Nueva

19. Mariel Tolentino

20. Phyllis Zaballero

21. Edgar Chua

22. Br. Bernard Oca FSC

23. Riza Mantaring

24. Cielito Habito

25. Bertie Lim

26. Katrina Navarro

27. Fr. Karel San Juan SJ

28. Rapa Lopa

29. Peter Perfecto

30. Edilberto C. De Jesus

Petition Signatories

31. Zy-za Nadine N. Suzara - public finance specialist, budget reform advocate

32. Luisito Gepuela - taxpayer, maka-taong budget advocate, civic and community advocate, road safety advocate

33. Eunice Tanilon

34. Jennae Jereza, Sector Support Officer, People’s Budget Coalition - mayroong mga tahanan sa mga lungsod na biktima ng flood control corruption

35. Francis “Tito Kapi” Capistrano

36. Norika Ishikawa

37. Alvin “Anding” Formentera, Cebu Anti-Corruption Coalition - Volunteer

38. Evangelina Labanda, SFIC

39. Maxine N. Valdez - Community Engagement Officer for People’s Budget Coalition, Gen Z na nag-aalala sa kinabukasan

40. Geminn Louis C. Apostol, OIC-Director, Ateneo Center for Research and Innovation

41. David D'Angelo, Spokesperson Kilos Bulacan

42. Richard James Mendoza, BusinessWorld

43. John Roy Rigodon, Sectoral Transparency Alliance On Natural Resource Governance Cebu

44. Riz Supreme Balgos Comia

45. Timothy Salomon

46. Patrick Acupan

47. Eirene Jhone E. Aguila

48. Alce Quitalig

49. Dondon Parafina

50. Tina P. Bawagan

51. Wilhansen Li

52. Howard Co