We have been shamelessly betrayed by our officials, from BBM to our elected leaders in Congress in the enactment of the 2025 national budget. BBM could have saved the day but he connived with Congress in his token veto of P26.065 billion worth of projects under the DPWH and P168.240 billion allocated under “Unprogrammed Appropriations.” Not surprisingly, BBM kept intact the pork funds inserted in the DPWH budget.
BBM said the vetoed line items were “deemed inconsistent with our programmed priorities.” So, why were those items in the original budget he sent to Congress?
Worse, the items he vetoed were important allocations that Congress moved from programmed to unprogrammed, meaning there is no certainty there will be funds to implement those items. And being unprogrammed now, the chances of implementation are nil so that there was no need to veto.
The Malacañang press release quoted BBM saying: “This approach is anchored on a simple yet profound truth: the appropriation of public funds must not break the public trust.” But that’s exactly what he and Congress did: they broke the public’s trust.
BBM vetoed unprogrammed items worth P168 billion only for headline purposes…so Malacañang can say he vetoed some items in the Congress approved budget now reputed to be the most crooked ever. The pork items in AKAP and the DPWH budget remain.
Also intact, not vetoed, was the last-minute addition of P17.37 billion to the House-approved P16.3 billion, more than doubling the House budget to P33.67 billion. The Senate’s addition of P1.1 billion to its original P12.8 billion was also allowed.
The national budget, as approved, relegated essential needs such as health and education to the back burner. Effectively, BBM and Congress are now saying that investment in our country’s human capital is not a priority.
For example, BBM proposed P74 billion for PhilHealth in his original budget proposal to cover the needs of some 40 million indigent members. Congress reduced it to zero. The P74 billion was to come from sin taxes on alcohol, tobacco and sweets, as mandated by the Universal Health Care Law.
That was not the only law whose mandated funding was ignored by this budget. Also relegated to the unappropriated portion of the budget are the shares of rice farmers from the import tariff under the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund. The funding for the conditional cash transfer for low-income families was also cut. This program, 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program), is preferable to the unconditional AKAP because continued benefit depends on the family bringing the children for health check-ups and attending school.
AKAP is purely dole-out to fund vote-buying in the May election. AKAP perpetuates the dependence of our poor citizens on politicians. Even if DSWD implements it, a letter from a politician facilitates the grant.
In a sense, AKAP perpetuates a beggar mentality among our people.
Also vetoed by BBM are allocations he earlier proposed for so called flagship infrastructure projects, including funds needed for right-of-way acquisitions, feasibility studies and detailed engineering designs, routine maintenance of national roads, his ambitious housing program (4PH program), social pension for indigent senior citizens, DepEd computerization program, emergency benefits and allowances owed to healthcare workers since COVID-19 and other priority social programs for health including enhancement of health facilities, higher education and technical and vocational education, etc.
In other words, BBM has allowed disinvestment in our human capital at a time when our young people are last in basic writing, reading and math among peer nations worldwide. We are wasting our so-called “demographic sweet spot” of a large working age population with little or no skills, no buying capacity to boost our consumer-based economy and are dependent on handouts. We are left eating the dust of our neighboring countries who are investing heavily in education.
With this national budget, BBM and Congress have abandoned this country’s future.
Our educational system is now in the pits because for the longest time, our children have been sacrificed to fatten the wallets of politicians and DepEd bureaucrats through wrong budget priorities and outright corruption.
We do not have time to waste to get our country’s direction right. We need a strong sense of national purpose and common good. Our culture remains hindered by the narrow view of our officials that supersedes national interest in favor of self and family interests.
“What’s in it for me or my family” is the prevailing cultural attitude. We have yet to develop a national culture that puts the national interest first. The behavior of our national officials is nothing short of shameless. But unfortunately, the people gave them the power to ravage our national treasury, a kind of constitutional robbery.
I see no real love of country among our officials. On the other hand, the South Koreans are progressive because they truly love their country, while we only pretend.
The notion that one might give up precious family heirlooms to help the state repay its debt would be absurd to us. And yet many Koreans did just that – during the Asian financial crisis which brought the country to the brink of bankruptcy in 1997.
The Korean people tackled the crisis head-on. Millions went to special collection points to give what they could in heirlooms, wedding rings, or small gold figures. Athletes brought in gold medals and trophies.
The result was impressive. Within months, 227 tons of gold were collected, valued at more than $3 billion. Voluntary action enabled Korea to repay its IMF loan ahead of schedule, after just three years.
Will that happen here? Not in our wildest dreams. When our treasury went bankrupt in 1983, the Marcos cronies not only kept their stash abroad but added to it.
We can only beg our people to throw their favorite rascals out of office this year. Enough should be enough.
Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco
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