Senate Bill

Escudero said he intends to have his proposal taken up as a priority measure and included in the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) list.

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He said his bill is being drafted and may be filed by Tuesday next week.

Amid reports tying him to corruption related to flood control projects, Escudero maintained he had never pocketed public funds.

He also pushed back against insinuations that flood mitigation projects in a senator's home province automatically indicate personal gain. "That is mere insinuation, part of PR job, PR campaign. It's not right," he said.

Recent media reports raised concerns over lump-sum allocations to Bulacan and Sorsogon - the latter being Escudero's home province - as well as vague project listings with little engineering detail, repeated road segments and uniform budget figures across unrelated infrastructure items.

It suggested that the senator may have used the national budget to build political capital for his rumored Senate presidency bid in the 20th Congress.

Demolition job But Escudero denied involvement in corruption, particularly in the insertion of P142.7 billion into the 2025 budget to finance infrastructure and flood control projects for his allies. He called the accusation a demolition job.

He called out his critics who accused him of using his position to mangle the budget, saying making "amendments" was part of their job and that calling the exercise "budget insertion" was "malicious."

"That is an allegation wrought with malice. This is clearly a PR job. I have nothing to hide," he added.

Escudero said it is Congress' job to scrutinize the budget and make amendments.

He said what is illegal is having "post-enactment intervention" of discretionary funds in the budget known as "pork barrel," which was outlawed by the Supreme Court.