Watchdogs find ‘hard, soft and shadow pork’ in 2026 budget
With less than a week remaining before President Marcos is expected to sign the government’s 2026 spending bill into law, budget watchers continued to push for changes in the P6.793-trillion General Appropriations Bill.
Budget watchdogs and civil society groups urged the President to trim more than P633 billion worth of supposed “pork barrel,” warning that these items remain highly vulnerable to corruption and political patronage.
In a joint letter addressed to the President, the Roundtable for Inclusive Development and the People’s Budget Coalition called on Malacañang to veto, conditionally implement or subject to citizen monitoring hundreds of billions in so-called “hard, soft and shadow pork.”
The letter was signed by Roundtable for Inclusive Development coconveners Pablo Virgilio Cardinal David and business sector leader Ramon del Rosario Jr., and the People’s Budget Coalition, led by Kenneth Abante and Reycel Bendaña.
First, the groups urged Marcos to veto P243 billion worth of “shadow pork,” referring to all unprogrammed appropriations that sit outside the regular budget framework and can be released with minimal transparency.
The groups also flagged P210 billion in “soft pork,” covering cash assistance, subsidies and social programs that the groups said are distributed through “discretionary, politician-mediated processes.”
These include major funding for medical assistance, emergency aid, employment programs and confidential and intelligence funds, which, the groups said, had nearly tripled compared with the President’s original budget proposal.
“Soft pork is composed of ‘ayuda’ programs at risk of political patronage that reduce our citizenry to begging from politicians, as opposed to rights-based and rules-based programs which citizens deserve with dignity,” the groups said.
They also pointed to P180 billion in “hard pork,” mainly infrastructure projects, such as roads, bridges and flood control works, that were either inserted, overpriced or reshaped through political discretion.
Budget transparency
Instead, the groups urged Malacañang to place more than P600 billion worth of infrastructure projects under multisectoral citizen monitoring and require the Department of Public Works and Highways to update its highway, bridge and flood control design manuals.
In their statement, the groups called for the creation of an open budget transparency server to be developed jointly by civil society groups, Congress and the executive and made accessible to the public and the media.
They further urged greater participation by civil society groups and scientists in the preparation of the 2027 budget, beginning even before the President finalizes the National Expenditure Program.
“This can help allay the public’s fears that more of the corruption has moved from legislative ‘insertions’ into executive ‘allocables’,” the groups said. “As citizens, we remain committed to working with you to monitor the budget process so that every taxpayer peso benefits our nation.”
