The House-approved 2027 budget includes funding for buildings whose listed project coordinates fall in Algeria and Nigeria, a watchdog told senators while raising concerns over more than ₱1 trillion in questionable spending allocations.
At a Senate finance committee hearing on Oct. 26, People’s Budget Coalition co-convenor Kenneth Isaiah Abante said the group had identified nearly 7,000 infrastructure projects added by the House, worth ₱190 billion, that lacked publicly available supporting documents.
“Some buildings are even in Algeria and Nigeria,”
Abante said, noting that the coalition had also flagged farm-to-market road coordinates located in Benham Rise and the Celebes Sea.
Congressional insertions under the Department of Public Works and Highways accounted for nearly 6,200 additional projects worth ₱172 billion, many of them multipurpose buildings. Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture received more than 350 new farm-to-market road projects valued at nearly ₱6 billion.
The House also included more than 180 health facilities worth over ₱2 billion, even as the overall budget for health facilities was reduced. More than 200 irrigation projects valued at over ₱7 billion also drew scrutiny over their projected costs.
The coalition’s wider assessment flagged ₱695 billion in infrastructure classified as hard pork, ₱210 billion in assistance programs it described as patronage-driven, and ₱112 billion in unprogrammed appropriations. Combined, these categories account for more than ₱1 trillion of the proposed ₱7.2-trillion budget.
The engineering office serving Ilocos Norte’s 1st District, represented by House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos, ranked first in House-added projects, with ₱4.375 billion. Misamis Occidental’s 2nd District came next with ₱1.8 billion, followed by Davao de Oro’s 2nd District with ₱1.7 billion.
Abante urged President Bongbong Marcos to veto them if they remain in the budget.
“This is the same modus operandi of the insertions of Speaker Martin Romualdez and Congressman Zaldy Co na nagdala po sa atin sa sitwasyong ito. Nag-insert ng proyektong walang batayang dokumento.”
The findings came days after the Supreme Court ruled key provisions of the 2024, 2025 and 2026 General Appropriations Acts unconstitutional over unauthorized congressional increases to unprogrammed standby funds and certain special accounts.
