Shamelessly fooling us

We have been shamelessly betrayed by our officials, from BBM to our elected leaders in Congress in the enactment of the 2025 national budget.

- BOO CHANCO

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.