HOLDING “open” bicameral deliberations on the proposed national budget may not be a guarantee that insertions of “pork barrel” funds will not be made, Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said yesterday.
However, Lacson said that opening the process to the public would let the people know who among the lawmakers will make such a move.
“It is still possible that some insertions could be made, but at least we can identify those who did so for their projects. We can track the differences between the General Appropriations Bill and the National Expenditure Program, with the public observing and with the minutes and transcripts of the proceedings,” Lacson said in Filipino in an interview with Bombo Radyo Philippines.
He said having an “open bicam” will likewise make lawmakers cautious about making insertions or realignments because they will be identified to the public.
Lacson is a signatory to proposed Joint Resolution No. 1, which seeks to make the budgetary process transparent by opening the bicameral committee deliberations to the public.
The five-man Senate minority bloc – composed of Senate minority leader Vicente Sotto III and Senators Lacson, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Loren Legarda and Risa Hontiveros – and Senators Francis Pangilinan and Paolo Benigno Aquino filed the resolution on Tuesday.
The seven senators said they do not want a repeat of the controversy that attended the bicameral hearings on the 2025 national budget, where lawmakers reduced the allocation for the education sector and allegedly padded the appropriation for flood control projects.
“The bicameral conference committee deliberations on the 2025 General Appropriations Bill, which was eventually signed into law as RA 12116, were attended by budget irregularities and distortions. The most serious irregularity was the violation of the constitutionally mandated provision that education shall have the highest budgetary priority,” the joint resolution stated.
It said that “corruption and harmful political insertions in legislation” led to the unequitable use of public funds that affected the vulnerable sectors of society.
They proposed that the bicameral deliberations be made public, whether in person or through digital livestreaming, and that a matrix showing the differences between the budget versions approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate and “how these differences were resolved” be made.
They also want a comprehensive minutes of the meetings, which they said should also be made available to the public.
At the same time, Lacson said ample time should be given to lawmakers to review the final version of the budget bill before it is submitted to Malacañang so that when it or portions of it are vetoed by the President, senators and congressmen can amend it and resubmit it for the Chief Executive’s signature before December 31.
He said this will lessen the pressure on lawmakers into just signing the budget bill without reviewing it first.
“We need ample time to enroll the budget bill and to review and re-enroll it if the President vetoes it. The deadline is December 31. If the President doesn’t sign it by that date, we automatically have a reenacted budget by January 1,” he said.
“There have been new developments toward transparency in the budgeting process because the President himself has said he will not sign a budget that is not aligned with the NEP,” he added.
