President's SONA emboldens Lacson to fight 'pork' in budget

Senator Panfilo Lacson became more emboldened to fight pork barrel and other anomalies in the national budget after President Marcos stressed in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 28 that there should be no repeat of the mangling of the 2025 budget.

- By DHEL NAZARIO

Lacson, an avowed enemy of the pork barrel system, also cited other positive developments from House Speaker Martin Romualdez and Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah Pangandaman that further fueled his drive to keep the budgeting process transparent and corruption-free.

"I will help because this is something I have been doing for so long. But now I and my staff are more emboldened to go after pork barrel because the President himself said he will not sign a budget bill that does not align with the National Expenditure Program," he said in Filipino in an interview on DZBB radio Tuesday.

Aside from the President's pronouncement, Lacson said, Pangandaman had talked to department secretaries and asked them not to approach lawmakers for additional funding in their 2026 budgets.

Lacson noted that when agency heads ask lawmakers for augmentations in their budgets, this emboldens some lawmakers to make their own insertions in the budget bill.