The approval of the 2026 budget bill at the House of Representatives (HOR) “bloated with pork barrel allocations” will spark more protests and widespread outrage against large-scale corruption in government, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) warned.
After the HOR approved a P6.793-trillion 2026 budget bill on third and final reading on Monday, the country’s biggest alliance of progressive organizations said the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government reneged on its assurances that next year’s general appropriations law would be “pork free.”
Over ₱243 billion of unprogrammed appropriations are included in the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), approved by 287 lawmakers. Twelve representatives voted against it while two abstained.
“The truth is, (the approved budget) will be diverted to traditional pork barrel projects to be endorsed or nominated by legislators – farm to market roads, multipurpose buildings, classrooms, irrigation facilities, and notorious ayuda programs,” BAYAN said.
The alliance said legislators can tap the diverted funds to continue receiving kickbacks, as as revealed in various investigations conducted in Congress.
“The flood control item was simply reformatted into other pork barrel projects and programs,” the group added.
BAYAN said Marcos Jr. shall be the biggest beneficiary of the pork barrel in next year’s proposed budget, on top of huge confidential and intelligence funds given to the Office of the President.
“This budget is a brazen continuation of the corrupt pork barrel system that has plundered billions of pesos from the Filipino people through more than 9,000 flood control projects from 2022 to the present,” the alliance said.
“Only he can authorize the release of this standby fund for projects he and his allies can plunder and use to boost patronage,” BAYAN pointed out.
BAYAN, part of the Kilusang Bayan Kontra Kurakot alliance behind the massive September 21 Luneta anti-corruption rally, earlier announced more protest events on October 17, October 21 and November 30.
Other groups such as the Concerned Artists of the Philippines and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas are conducting regular rallies leading to November 30, Bonifacio Day.
Makabayan Coalition votes ‘No’
Among the 12 lawmakers who voted against the measure were members of the Makabayan bloc.
The approved bill contains a “presidential pork barrel” amounting to a minimun of ₱281 billion, Makabayan said in voting “no.”
The coalition said unprogrammed appropriations is the very mechanism that ballooned to historic levels in 2023 and 2024 and became the source of funding for thousands of additional infrastructure projects that turned out to be vehicles for massive plunder.
“The grotesquely inflated confidential and intelligence funds totalling ₱10.9 billion remains intact, along with the NTF-ELCAC’s ₱8.08 billion Barangay Development Fund. The Office of the President retains the biggest share in Confidential and Intelligence funds at P4.5 billion,” Makabayan revealed.
Makabayan also opposed the following:
- ₱415 billion in legislative pork barrel that presidents use to maintain control of the legislature;
- ₱174.6 billion “allocable” funds through DPWH’s District Engineering Offices — a minimum of ₱230 million per congressional district and ₱3.2 billion per senator.
- ₱32.6 billion for farm-to-market roads, ₱35.1 billion for school buildings, ₱20.2 billion for health facilities, and ₱9.6 billion for irrigation — all subject to the discretion and proposal of individual legislators.
- ₱130.4 billion worth of “ayuda funds” — medical assistance, livelihood programs, scholarships, and crisis intervention funds legislators use to build political machinery and secure the loyalty of constituents rendered desperate by poverty and lack of basic services.
Makabayan also revealed that while ₱255 billion worth of local flood control projects have been removed and “realigned” to education, health, social services, and agriculture, these remain as pork barrel in different forms: additional classrooms proposed by legislators, farm-to-market roads, scholarships, medical assistance, and ayuda — all maintaining the system of patronage allocations that fuels corruption.
Gabriela Women’s Party, Kabataan Youth Party and ACT Teachers’ Party said Pres. Marcos cannot escape command responsibility for the corruption-infested budget.
“As President, he is legally required to approve all releases from unprogrammed appropriations. Every ghost project, every overpriced contract, every substandard road and flood control structure built with these funds was approved under his watch,” Makabayan said.
“His attempt to rebrand himself as the ‘exposer’ of corruption is a cynical ploy to evade accountability for a system of plunder over which he exercised direct control,” it added.
Pork by other names
The progressive parties said that any project that involves nomination by lawmakers is an invitation to congressional intervention and corruption.
“As has been revealed in various congressional inquiries, projects proposed or nominated by lawmakers are already presumed to be tainted by corruption through a system of rigged bids and kickbacks involving the DPWH and private contractors,” they said.
Makabayan explained that the problem is how projects are identified, approved, and implemented.
Pet projects continue to be awarded to favored contractors who give kickbacks as much as 40% of the total project cost to legislator-proponents, various congressional investigations exposed.
“This is what produces ghost, substandard, and overpriced projects—and this system has not been touched let alone abolished,” Makabayan added.
The Coalition also said that the ongoing investigations would not solve corruption in government.
“What good is an investigation when the very budget being approved today perpetuates the mechanisms that enable corruption? The Marcos administration’s anti-corruption rhetoric is exposed as hollow posturing when confronted with the reality of ₱696 billion in presidential and congressional pork barrel allocations in this budget,” it pointed out.
Makabayan called for the complete abolition of pork barrel in all its forms, the elimination of unprogrammed appropriations as a presidential slush fund, and the prosecution of those implicated in flood control funds misuse. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)