Lacson: Adopt executive spending plan to prevent mangled budget

To stop congressional insertions in the national budget, Sen. Panfilo Lacson is proposing that Congress just adopt the National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the executive for 2026.

- MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB

If Congress goes along with the proposal, it will be the first time that lawmakers will not insert amendments to finance their pet projects in the annual outlay.

Senate President Francis Escudero said recently that Congress would assert its power of the purse.

The executive has proposed a P6.793-trillion budget for 2026.

"For a change, why not have the Senate adopt the NEP, so that if there will be problems in implementing projects in 2026, it will be on the executive department," Lacson said in a radio interview.

"At least if it's the NEP, I'm sure the items in it were studied carefully by the implementing agencies concerned," he added.

Lacson said he would propose this during the upcoming Senate briefing with the Development Budget Coordination Committee.

The Senate and House of Representatives can both adopt the NEP, then guard the implementation of the projects in the national outlay.

As senator, Lacson calls out questionable insertions in the budget to favored lawmakers' projects, causing realignments in the final General Appropriations Act (GAA), where social services are slashed to accommodate the politicians' requests.

"This will be a one-year experiment. If it fails, we go back to the realignment," Lacson said.

Not an isolated case

Lacson has denied claims that the practice of ghost flood control projects in Bulacan is an isolated case, as he lamented this remark made by no less than Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan.