Lacson: Senate to remove P42-B ‘ayuda’ in ’26 budget
Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson on Tuesday vowed that the upper chamber will be uncompromising in removing some P42 billion in appropriations for “ayuda” or social assistance programs from the unprogrammed appropriations in the 2026 budget bill approved by the House of Representatives.
“The House left some P42 billion in the unprogrammed appropriations for ayuda, and we will remove it,” he said in an interview on radio dzBB, adding that they will keep the unprogrammed appropriations only for foreign-assisted projects.
“We expect a long discussion in the bicameral conference committee but we senators agreed that ayuda funds cannot be in the unprogrammed appropriations. They should be in the regular budget,” he noted.
Lacson said he is taking this stand along with most members of the Senate majority, including Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chair of the Senate finance committee.
The House of Representatives passed the P6.793-trillion national budget bill on third and final reading on Oct. 13 before it adjourned for its monthlong break.
While House Bill No. 4058 allocated P1.28 trillion for the education cluster—the highest in the country’s history—minority lawmakers who voted against the bill noted that it still kept P249 billion in unprogrammed appropriations (UA).
Civil society watchdogs have been calling for the abolition of the UA, which are standby funds that can be tapped only when new revenue or loans materialize, amid revelations that they have been used to fund anomalous government projects.
Under the House version, the flood control budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was realigned mainly to the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations, or AICS (P32.6 billion), and the Department of Labor and Employment’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers, or Tupad program (P14.82 billion), undertakings that critics called “tools for political patronage.”
In the same radio interview, Lacson disclosed that the DPWH diverted no less than P50 billion from unprogrammed appropriations in the 2024 budget for various infrastructure projects, including P30 billion just for flood control projects.
“This means DPWH officials have become comfortable with funding such projects even if this means violating the government’s master plan,” Lacson said on Tuesday.
The Senate leader said these appropriations were spread throughout several districts.
“The public fund was abused because of the collusion between some lawmakers and DPWH officials, to the point that lawmakers gave the DPWH bigger funds than the education sector—and in 2025, they continued this practice until it exploded in our faces,” he added.
Lacson said the DPWH’s practice of playing with public funds needs to stop, particularly the practice of substituting projects that he said is tantamount to technical malversation.
“When we pass the budget bill, everything is itemized. If you make changes there, that is already technical malversation even if you have not stolen anything yet. Appropriations for a particular item must be properly spent. If not, the funds should go to savings,” he pointed out.
Lacson questioned why former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan received handwritten “memos” from civilians or non-organic DPWH personnel on which projects to endorse when he headed the department.
“I am baffled by the documents I saw, where Bonoan received handwritten memos that turned out to be from civilians or non-organic DPWH personnel. How did these memos, which were scribbled on Post-It notes, get to Bonoan?” Lacson asked. “That’s the hard part. Such communications didn’t go through the official channels of the department. Why is the secretary dealing with them directly?”
Expanded probe
This is the latest in a series of irregularities uncovered by Lacson in his investigation of the corrupt practices in the DPWH that led to substandard and ghost flood control projects.
Earlier, Lacson voiced surprise over the “leadership fund” in the DPWH where Bonoan said they consolidate the requested proposals of lawmakers in the National Expenditure Program, thus allowing lawmakers to tinker with the budget before they are authorized to do so.
The Senate leader also lamented how the DPWH would arbitrarily change even the requests of lawmakers—such as substituting a P1.5-billion request for multipurpose buildings with P600 million in flood control projects—indicating how kickbacks now have priority over needs.
“From the testimonies of DPWH personnel, it appears public funds have become nothing more but a toy for corrupt DPWH officials,” he lamented.
Lacson said the Senate blue ribbon’s probe into flood control projects could expand to other anomalous infrastructure projects, including farm-to-market roads, noting how the DPWH allowed such corruption over the years.
“Over time, the DPWH allowed such abuses because they went undetected or unpunished. In the course of time, this became a lucrative practice,” he said.
