Incoming Senator Ping Lacson, together with his prospective staff, have started taking a deep dive into how the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) or national budget was mangled, to prevent a possible similar butchering of the national budget bill for next year.
Lacson said they are reviewing how changes were made from the National Expenditure Program (NEP) to the versions of the budget bill in the House, Senate, and bicameral conference committee, all the way to the enrolled bill.
“We are juxtaposing the NEP, the House, Senate and bicameral versions of the bill, and the enrolled bill to see how the 2025 budget was mangled.”
“We are juxtaposing the NEP, the House, Senate and bicameral versions of the bill, and the enrolled bill to see how the 2025 budget was mangled. We are looking at the NEP or President’s budget and what changes were made in the House version, the Senate version, and the bicam version,” he said in Filipino, in an interview on One News recently.
Lacson – who gained a reputation as a watchdog of the national budget – had made a post-election promise to be “more quixotic” or more idealistic in the next six years of budget deliberations.
He cited as an example of mangling in the 2025 budget the removal of P50 billion from the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the bicameral conference committee, with the amount going to various forms of “ayuda” programs that are prone to abuse since they are not data-driven.
“P26 billion was inserted for the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) even if it was neither in the House or Senate version of the budget measure.”
Also, Lacson cited the insertion of P26 billion for the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) even if it was neither in the House or Senate version of the budget measure.
Leaderships of both chambers agreed to divide the amount – P21 billion for the House and P5 billion for the Senate.
The questions surrounding the various “ayuda” programs prompted Lacson to work on a bill that will integrate these aid programs under 4Ps so it will be data-driven and not whimsical.
