2026 budget still pork-laden, says Social Watch Philippines

THE 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA) still carries traces of pork despite claims of transparency, Social Watch Philippines said on Tuesday.

“When the 2026 budget was basically presented to the public, when it was enacted into law, it was widely hailed by policymakers,” said Ma. Victoria R. Raquiza, convenor of Social Watch Philippines, in a webinar.

“They said that this was not just a clean budget but a squeaky-clean budget, that it was the most transparent budget in recent history, and it will restore the people’s trust,” she added.

However, she said that the group still found substantial pork, now embedded more in programmed appropriations rather than in unprogrammed appropriations (UAs).

“The kleptocrats in both the Executive and the Legislative domains have also learned. And so, if in 2025 and 2024, public fury was focused on the UAs, and that gained a lot of media scrutiny, this time it won’t be under unprogrammed appropriations,” she said in mixed English and Filipino.

“A lot of it now was found in the programmed appropriations, so in Social Watch Philippines, we identified at least P319 billion worth of pork in the agency budgets alone, or what People’s Budget Coalition refers to as hard pork,” she added.

This includes increases in the Department of Public Works and Highways’ Basic Infra Program and the Sustainable Infra Projects Alleviating Gaps program to the tune of P81.94 billion.

Flood control projects, she added, have also morphed into farm-to-market roads, with P8.9 billion inserted into the program without public scrutiny.

The group also flagged P808.58 billion in discretionary funding under the President, including P10 billion for the Presidential Assistance for Farmers and Fisherfolk and P708.58 billion in special purpose funds.

Soft pork worth P137.5 billion was also found, consisting of cash transfers accessible through politicians via guarantee letters.

She said that while the programs themselves serve good purposes, the mode of distribution makes them problematic.

“In sum, the 2026 budget remains very much pork laden. A huge amount of funds went to promoting patronage politics. And it also remained anti-developmental,” she said. “While we recognize legislators’ attempt to make the budget process more transparent, these efforts really did not go far enough, and we felt it was very much performative and even insincere, if you like.”

Social Watch Philippines urged accountability for corruption in past GAAs, especially the trillion-peso scandal that shook the country last year. — Justine Irish D. Tabile