January 5, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) signed by President Marcos is “pork barrel-free,” House Assistant Majority Leader and Tingog party-list Rep. Jude Acidre said yesterday.
In a text message to The STAR, Acidre said the claim of former Senate president Franklin Drilon that the 2025 national budget includes substantial “pork barrel” allocations is not true.
Drilon said on Friday that P731.4 billion in pork barrel funds from the 2024 GAA and an additional P347 billion in 2025 GAA was made possible through the Congress-introduced amendments in the 2025 GAA.
“We’ve been very clear that the 2025 budget is pork-free,” Acidre said.
He added that no discretionary funds are going to the legislators.
“Every single line item is transparent, with clear guidelines and implementation handled by the proper executive agencies,” Acidre said.
He said the legislative process is designed to thoroughly examine the budget and ensure all allocations are in line with the Constitution and the country’s priorities.
“While funding adjustments may happen, they are done to make sure resources are distributed efficiently without cutting essential services,” Acidres said.
Aside from the presence of line items, Acidre said the guidelines are crafted by the executive agencies and the programs themselves will be implemented by them.
None of the items and projects, according to Acidre, have been delegated to the legislative.
He said it is unfair to say that these funds are discretionary funds and represent a return to the old pork barrel system as all are within the purview of the executive and the executive agencies.
Drilon on Friday challenged the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to disclose the billions of pesos worth of Congress-introduced amendments in the 2025 GAA.
The DBM said Thursday that budget releases must comply with DBM rules like “For Issuance of Special Allotment Release Order” or FISARO which is an authorization document for the allocation and utilization of public funds for various government projects and programs.
Acidre said all executive agencies must comply with DBM’s rules.
Education budget
Meanwhile, the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) will take the Marcos administration to the Supreme Court (SC) to question the legality of lumping the funding institutions run by the defense and interior departments with the education budget.
Stressing that counting the schools and training institutions run by the Department of National Defense (DND) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in the education sector’s budget could be unconstitutional, TDC said the SC was the proper forum for the matter.
TDC chairman Benjo Basas said the group found it “absurd” that the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP), Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA), Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC) and the Local Government Academy (LGA) were counted in the education sector’s budget.
He stressed that if these institutions could be lumped with the education sector, all other agencies that have education programs like the Department of Agriculture and the Commission on Human Rights could be used to justify the constitutional requirement of prioritizing the education budget when the total allocation for education agencies was lower than other sectors like public works.
The group was questioning how the P1.055-trillion funding for the education sector – which holds the lion’s share of the 2025 general appropriations – included the DND’s PMA and NDCP and the DILG’s PNPA, PPSC and LGA, which traditionally obtained their allocations from their parent agencies.
Be the first to comment