Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco said the House of Representatives’ 2025 budget more than doubled from its initial proposal to ₱33.67 billion during Martin Romualdez’s speakership, raising questions about how the additional ₱17.32 billion was approved and spent without the same level of scrutiny required of other government agencies.
Tiangco made the revelation in a new episode of the Peanut Gallery Podcast with PGMN Anchor Atty. Bing Guanzon, where he challenged the House’s practice of handling its own multibillion-peso budget without undergoing the detailed briefing process imposed on other government institutions.
“There is no provision of law or of the Constitution that exempts the budget of the House of Representatives from scrutiny,” Tiangco said.
The Navotas lawmaker explained that government agencies are generally expected to account for their previous spending, report on current allocations and justify their proposed budgets for the following year. He said the House has traditionally not subjected its own budget to the same level of detailed examination.
Tiangco cited figures from the Romualdez speakership to illustrate the increases. He said the House’s proposed ₱15.97-billion allocation in 2023 eventually rose to ₱28.014 billion. In 2025, the initial ₱16.35-billion proposal increased to ₱33.67 billion after an additional ₱17.32 billion was added. The 2026 allocation also grew from ₱17.20 billion to ₱27.70 billion.
Tiangco said the sharp increase in 2025, followed by a lower allocation the next year, warrants closer examination, particularly because 2025 was an election year. He did not claim that the increases alone established wrongdoing but said lawmakers and taxpayers should be able to determine why the additional funds were requested and how they were used.
Guanzon also questioned Tiangco about the House Committee on Accounts, which oversees the chamber’s internal budget. During Romualdez’s speakership, the committee was chaired by his wife, Yedda Romualdez.
The discussion also examined how House spending could reach tens of billions of pesos. Tiangco pointed to maintenance and other operating expenses, district offices, salaries, consultants and other expenditures, noting that even ₱1 million in monthly MOOE for each of 318 lawmakers would total only about ₱4 billion annually.
“So paano kami umabot ng ₱27 billion?” Tiangco asked, stressing that such questions cannot be properly answered without detailed scrutiny.
For Tiangco, transparency is essential to determining how public money is spent and who should be held responsible for its use.
“If you want to stop corruption, there are two things that are necessary: transparency and accountability,” Tiangco said.
“How will you hold people accountable kung hindi kayo fully transparent?”
Watch the full episode here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/1421359796805523
