A budget by dynasties, for dynasties

In my column last week, I stated that our political leaders and the political system they created have failed us.

- ANDREW J. MASIGAN

And for as long as the current political system remains in force with the same cast of political actors, the country will continue to lag behind our peers in most aspects of development. The 2025 national budget perfectly substantiates my assertions.

Congressmen more than doubled their budget, giving themselves an increase of P17.37 billion while the Senate gave themselves an increase of P1.1 billion. They did this while reducing the allocations for our basic needs.

What is even more contemptible is that they gave themselves the power to disburse social development funds. How did they do this? They reduced the budget of the DSWD by P96 billion and set up a budget of P36 billion for Congress and P15 billion for the Senate so they can distribute “ayuda” themselves. In effect, taxpayers’ money will fund their re-election campaigns and “vote buying” operations. Worse, they manipulated the Malasakit program of the DOH such that it now requires an endorsement of a local politician before benefits can be released. Both schemes promote political patronage as politicians fashion themselves as “saviors,” leveraging on the people’s desperation.

Congress knowingly defied the Constitution by not appropriating the largest appropriation to education but giving the lion’s share to the DPWH. Of course, a large chunk of DPWH’s budget will be spent on flood control, which we all know is another source of pork. The kickbacks for flood control can reach 70 percent.

At a time when our young learners are already the least intelligent in the world and are in desperate need to catch up, Congress and Malacañang reduced the DepEd’s budget by P12 billion and channeled it to themselves, albeit indirectly.