‘Marcos insisted on his P100 billion insertions’

I AM publishing relevant parts of former congressman Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co’s February 2025 letter to President Marcos, which he posted recently in his Facebook page, for Filipinos to decide for themselves whether credible or not his account is of the very dark side of this administration. Marcos has arrogantly dismissed his claims saying: “Anyone can go online and make all kinds of claims and say all kinds of things… but it means nothing.”

That doesn’t wash, as Co is not just “anyone.” As his account below reveals, he was assigned the task by speaker Martin Romualdez to shepherd the budget bill through the myriad opposition and lobbying by senators, and even executive department officials.

One thing is clear in his account: despite Co’s legitimate arguments, Marcos was adamant in his P100-billion insertions, 70 percent of which was for DPWH flood control projects. Co would later claim that this was the source of P25-billion kickbacks from contractors involved in these projects, and he arranged the delivery of these moneys to Martin Romualdez, who told him these would be given to Marcos.

Very revealing in Co’s account and never before publicly disclosed is the stubbornness of then-Senate president (SP) Francis “Chiz” Escudero in insisting major changes in Marcos’ proposed budget to the point of having major cuts in the budget’s original allocations for health, education and the president’s flagship projects. Another revelation in Co’s letter was that Marcos put in insertions of P100 billion not only in the 2025 budget but also in the 2023 and 2024 budget.

Salient parts of Co’s account (itals, the columnist’s for emphasis):

“I write with deep concern regarding recent budget issues. After reviewing the final budget adjustments and the long list of flagship projects affected, I feel that the House has been unfairly accused by some quarters of making a mess of the 2025 budget. I am thus compelled to explain and set the record straight.

“The House faithfully adhered to the National Expenditure Program. Instead of reducing allocations, we hiked funding for critical sectors like education and social services

“In late November, I told Usec Adrian Bersamin, Sec. Mina Pangandaman and Usec. Jojo Cadiz to advise Your Excellency that the P100-billion insertion the Office of the President requested must be split into programmed and unprogrammed as it will have severe backlash on the education sector. But Sec. Mina said Your Excellency’s instruction was ‘to proceed’ and that we must follow. So we did.

“During the previous Budget Bicams (FY 2023 and 2024), then-Senator Sonny Angara and I never encountered this issue. According to Sen. Sonny, all Presidential insertions are typically included in unprogrammed appropriations.

Allocation

“For instance, of the President’s P100-billion allocation for FY 2023, P75 billion was placed under unprogrammed appropriations while the P25 billion for the Special Assistant to the President (per Your Excellency’s instruction to Speaker Martin during your trip abroad in 2022) was placed in programmed appropriations. In 2024, however, since majority of Your Excellency’s cabinet preferred programmed funds, P40 billion of President’s P100-billion allocation was placed in programmed appropriations, while the remaining P60 billion was retained under unprogrammed.* (Programmed funds are appropriations that already have definite, identified funding sources and therefore are ‘ready to be implemented.’ Unprogrammed funds are appropriations which can be released only if revenues are enough for these to be spent).

“For the 2025 budget, none of our Senate counterparts adhered to Your Excellency’s campaign promise of food and health legacy and other basic concerns. Since Senate President Chiz wanted a P200-billion allocation for the Senate, further cuts were made but only reached P150- The P150-billion was allocated in programmed funds, while the balance of P50 billion was placed in unprogrammed.

“I repeatedly warned SP Chiz of the Senate’s very large DPWH allocation because it would exceed education. But he didn’t t want to give way. He threatened to delay budget deliberations until March 2025, which would have resulted in a reenacted budget. I asked Sec. Mina to relay SP Chiz’s threat to Malacanang and Your Excellency’s response, per Sec. Mina, – “Don’t ever think about it.” Thus, the House was left with no choice but to concede.

“I then warned Your Excellency’s trusted aides, particularly Sec. Mina, Usec. Adrian, and Usec Jojo, about the severe backlash on education. My constant reminder was simple: Don’t let DPWH’s budget outpace education. The Constitution mandates that education receive the highest budgetary allocation as clearly stated in Your Excellency’s budget message.

“On the issue of the P100-billion OP list submitted by Adrian (Bersamin) on December 6, 2024, I asked him several times if it really came from Your Excellency. He assured me that it was upon your instructions and that said list came from Your Excellency’s brown leather bag. The same was later confirmed by Sec. Mina via phone call that the list indeed came from the President.

List

“Upon reviewing the list, however, I told Adrian that it contained projects like rock-netting and safety devices which Congress, as a policy, disallowed in 2024 due to serious anomalies (like 30 percent overprice). I clearly recall Your Excellency’s instructions in 2023 to stop these kinds of projects to temper the greed of Congressmen. Thus, I told Adrian to revise the list per Your Excellency’s strict instructions to minimize, if not stop, corruption.

“Due to instructions to ‘proceed’ with proposed insertions that led to budget cuts and realignments including the Senate allocation inserted everything in DPWH, the final budget encountered serious imbalances. DPWH’s allocation exceeded education, which is a direct violation of our Constitutional duty. This is not just a procedural issue; it has real, painful consequences.

“Allow me to discuss other equally important issues for Your Excellency’s information and to provide clarity to a lot of baseless accusations being thrown against the House of Representatives, Speaker Martin and myself:

“– Due to DepEd’s low utilization rate and in a desire to increase the sources of funds during the bicam, SP Chiz cut P10 billion from the agency’s computerization program. The House position was to put the budget in school buildings, but SP Chiz insisted on putting everything in DPWH despite an earlier agreement that DepEd funds should only be reallocated within the agency or other DepEd projects. This was followed by another P1.692-billion budget reduction for new teaching positions which curtailed government’s ability to hire new teachers. This means DepEd can only hire teachers for the first three months of the year and would have to scramble for funds to fill up 20,000 teaching posts.

“– It was also upon SP Chiz’s suggestion that the P74-billion subsidy for PhilHealth was scrapped; The House fought hard to maintain the P16.9-billion intended for the subsistence allowance of Military and Uniformed Personnel (MUP); P5.4 billion for the ASEAN meet; and P1.8 billion for the Mobile Laboratories under the First Lady’s Health Program; Further, SP Chiz wanted to cut the P106-billion realigned projects under the District Engineering Offices (DEOs) of DPWH as well as the P16-billion ERRATA of the agency which consists of various corrections and adjustments made during the initial phase of the budget process. Speaker Martin and I did not agree to cut the P106 billion but relented to the P16-billion cut because of SP Chiz’s threat to delay budget approval.

Share

“– Since the Senate President really wanted a P200-billion share for the Senate, he moved to his next target: he slashed P13.9 billion or half of the P27.8-billion infrastructure funding for the administration’s flagship projects. This includes, among others, budgets for the ongoing repair and rehabilitation of critical roads linking Batangas and Quezon province. If unrepaired, these roads will continue to cause severe traffic, massive inconvenience to commuters and motorists, and billions in revenue losses due to disruptions in trade and commerce;

“– Mr. President, I respectfully wish to inform you of a long-standing tradition in budget allocation ratios: for every one (1) unit allocated to the Senate, the House of Representatives receives two (2), given its significantly larger membership. Therefore, if the Senate is allocated P150 billion in programmed appropriations for 2025, the House of Representatives should proportionally receive P300 billion; Since the Office of the President allocated P83-billion programmed funds to DPWH, the House was only able to allocate P120 billion to DPWH so that it wouldn’t exceed the budget for education. Because of Speaker Martin’s commitment to Your Excellency during the economic cluster meeting, the 300-member House had to sacrifice and limit its allocation to DPWH to P120 billion which could have a huge impact given that it’s an election year.

“If House members were corrupt, as some have alleged, we could have easily funneled funds into confidential or intelligence allocations, which could potentially yield a 60% rebate. However, we did no such thing. In fact, the limited confidential and intelligence funds we allocated — based on requests from Your Excellency’s Cabinet, including the DOJ (P1.15-B (OP thru Jojo); DICT PSO-M (Cybersecurity and attacks vs. admin); and PNP Marbil’s request of P500-M (reported ro Adrian) carry ZERO rebates. This claim can be readily verified with the concerned agencies.

“When PNP Chief Marbil approached Speaker Martin for intelligence funds, the Speaker told him that PNP already has CF/IF from the OP/ES. But he said: ‘Wala silang bininigay. Ako ang nagbibigay sa kanila.’ But now, Gen. Marbil, the HOR and I are being maligned by Interior and Local Government Secretary Remulla in a recent press briefing;

“For the Department of Agriculture, it was also SP Chiz who moved to slash the P10-billion budget intended for the fertilizer voucher project under DA’s Rice Program. Thus, it’s not true that the House cut DA’s budget. From the beginning, increasing production and stabilizing the price of rice has always been on the House and Speaker Martin’s agenda. Thus, the House would never propose cutting the budget for DA’s rice program. It’s illogical and totally absurd;

“Also upon the Senate President’s insistence, the proposed realignments of DOH, DA, DOTr, and NIA were all considered as budget cuts. Thus, the complaints from these agencies.

“When we asked Sec. Manny Bonoan, he said (Mindanao Development Authority chair) Leo Magno visited him in the DPWH central office. He was asking for the allocations of Regions 9, 10 and 11 and all other allocable districts of DPWH. If Sec. Manny refuses, Leo Magno threatened to cause trouble. In short, Leo Magno (SAP’s Mindanao representative) said he will make a mess of the bidding. Nakakahiya man sabihin, Mr. President, doon mismo sa office ni Sec. Manny, brokers and contractors are fighting each other because they already made advances.”

Note: I have posted Co’s unedited letter in my website rigobertotiglao.com

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‘Marcos insisted on his P100 billion insertions’
Source: Breaking News PH