Senate blue ribbon committee chair Panfilo Lacson revealed Sunday that “almost all” senators in the 19th Congress inserted at least ₱100 billion worth of projects into the proposed 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
Lacson, who serves as Senate president pro tempore, said documents he obtained showed the insertions were made individually but later categorized as “for later release” (FLR).
“For the Senate, the insertions amounted to at least ₱100 billion. I was surprised because these were individual insertions although they were held ‘for later release.’ It was humongous. I have never seen such amounts,” Lacson said in a radio interview.
He noted that while he has yet to examine the House’s records, the list of congressmen who made similar insertions was also “lengthy.”
Lacson compared the current allocations to the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), or “pork barrel,” which the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional in 2013. “Before PDAF was abolished, pork amounted to hundreds of millions. Now it’s at least ₱100 billion total for senators alone,” he said.
While not illegal, Lacson argued that individual amendments of up to ₱5 billion or ₱9 billion each were questionable, warning that such practices could disrupt the economy.
“The withheld or diverted funds could have gone to infrastructure programs that were planned and vetted at the barangay, city, and regional levels,” he said.
He added that during the budget deliberations, he intends to press agencies on why such insertions were allowed, and to ask how much of the allocations had been released and implemented, particularly under the unprogrammed appropriations.
