Lacson: Ensure Full Budget Transparency by Making Insertion Proponents Public
August 13, 2025
Lacson: Ensure Full Budget Transparency by Making Insertion Proponents Public
The most genuine transparency is full transparency. On this note, Sen. Panfilo "Ping" M. Lacson on Wednesday pushed anew to make public the proponents of all amendments - including insertions - in the budget process.
Lacson, an eagle-eyed watchdog of the national budget, said this will make the proponents answerable for flood control and other infrastructure projects that turn out to be substandard or ghost projects.
Otherwise, he said Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 4, which was taken up in plenary Tuesday, will not achieve its purpose of ensuring transparency in deliberations for the 2026 budget.
"To truly ensure transparency in the national budget process, the identities of individual proponents of amendments aka insertions must also be made public, so they may be made answerable for substandard or ghost projects that they proposed in the crafting of the GAA. Otherwise, Senate Concurrent Resolution no. 4 will defeat its purpose," he said in a post on X Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Lacson stressed this point during his interpellation of Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 4. "We have to be able to identify sino ang proponent/s ng amendments (We have to identify who are the proponent/s of the amendment/s). Can we do that? We are for full transparency. The most genuine transparency is full transparency," he told Senate finance committee chairman Sherwin Gatchalian, the sponsor of the resolution.
"Kung hindi rin full transparency, ayokong sabihing naglolokohan, pero hindi rin fully transparent. It will defeat the purpose. Because what we should identify, ang proponent kasi nandoon ang taguan. Pag di na-identify back to the proponent/s ng amendment/s, kanya-kanya tayong singitan na naman (If we don't have full transparency, I don't want to say we're just kidding each other, but we will not be fully transparent and it will defeat the purpose of the resolution. We should identify the proponent because the hiding of 'pork' is there. If we don't trace amendments back to the proponents, this will allow questionable insertions all over again)," he added.
Lacson raised the issue after learning from Gatchalian that not all documents may be uploaded to the government's website under the concurrent resolution.
While Gatchalian said they may upload only the committee report and not the full amendments to avoid "complexity," Lacson said this would defeat the purpose of the resolution.
Lacson said that without full transparency, they can no longer identify the proponent of the amendment. He noted that even in the second reading in the House, "may bulungan na (amendments are whispered)" and the amendments are not taken up in plenary.
"Ang hirap maghanap, mag-review sa budget deliberation, hirap na hirap kami ng staff namin pag naghahanap ako ng previous years' budget napakahirap. Pero kung may record ako kanino galing ang amendment, mas madali hong maghanap. (It is hard to review amendments in budget deliberations. My staff and I have a hard time doing this in scrutinizing previous years' budgets. But if I had a record of who made what amendment, the amendments will be easier to track)," Lacson said.
"It's not really difficult if we want to do it... If we upload all the amendments, even amendments to the amendments to the amendments, hindi mahirap i-upload yan Mr. President, especially written amendments (It's not really difficult if we want to do it. If we upload all the amendments, even amendments to the amendments, it's not hard to upload them, especially the written amendments)," he added, telling Gatchalian he is willing to help work on it to make it happen.
Lacson: Tiyakin ang Tunay na Transparency sa Badyet, Ilantad ang Mga Proponent ng Insertion
Ang tunay na transparency ay ang buo na transparency. Iginiit ito ni Sen. Panfilo "Ping" M. Lacson nitong Miyerkules nang isinulong niya na isapubliko ang lahat ng nagpanukala ng mga pag-amyenda sa panukalang batas sa badyet, gaano man kakumplikado o katagal ito gawin.
Iginiit ni Lacson, na mahigpit na tagabantay ng kaban ng bayan, na sa ganitong paraan lamang mapapanagot ang mga nagpanukala ng pag-amyenda o pagsingit sa mga proyekto gaya ng flood control na substandard o guniguni.
Kung hindi, iginiit niya na hindi makakamit ng Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 4, na tinalakay nitong Martes, ang layunin nitong tiyakin ang transparency sa talakayan ng 2026 budget.
"To truly ensure transparency in the national budget process, the identities of individual proponents of amendments aka insertions must also be made public, so they may be made answerable for substandard or ghost projects that they proposed in the crafting of the GAA. Otherwise, Senate Concurrent Resolution no. 4 will defeat its purpose," ani Lacson sa post sa X.
Noong Martes, binigyang-diin ni Lacson ang puntong ito sa kanyang interpelasyon ng Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 4.
"We have to be able to identify sino ang proponent/s ng amendments. Can we do that? We are for full transparency. The most genuine transparency is full transparency," giit niya kay Senate finance committee chairman Sherwin Gatchalian, ang nag-sponsor ng resolusyon.
"Kung hindi rin full transparency, ayokong sabihing naglolokohan, pero hindi rin fully transparent. It will defeat the purpose. Because what we should identify, ang proponent kasi nandoon ang taguan. Pag di na-identify back to the proponent/s ng amendment/s, kanya-kanya tayong singitan na naman," dagdag ni Lacson.
Ipinunto ito ni Lacson matapos malaman mula kay Gatchalian na hindi lahat ng dokumento ay maaaring i-upload sa website ng gobyerno sa ilalim ng concurrent resolution.
Bagaman sinabi ni Gatchalian na maaaring i-upload lamang ang committee report at hindi ang lahat ng amyenda upang maiwasan ang "complexity," giit ni Lacson na mababalewala nito ang layunin ng resolusyon.
Dagdag ni Lacson, kung walang ganap na transparency, hindi na matutukoy kung sino ang proponent ng amyenda. Binanggit pa niya na kahit sa second reading sa Kamara, "may bulungan na" at hindi tinatalakay sa plenaryo ang mga amyenda.
"Ang hirap maghanap, mag-review sa budget deliberation, hirap na hirap kami ng staff namin pag naghahanap ako ng previous years' budget napakahirap. Pero kung may record ako kanino galing ang amendment, mas madali hong maghanap ," ani Lacson.
"It's not really difficult if we want to do it... If we upload all the amendment, even amendments to the amendments to the amendments, hindi mahirap i-upload yan Mr. President, especially written amendments," dagdag pa ni Lacson, at sinabing handa siyang tumulong kay Gatchalian upang maisakatuparan ito.
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