House leaders vehemently deny allegations of a revival of the pork barrel system in the 2025 national budget, asserting its transparency and adherence to executive guidelines.
House leaders on Friday declared that the 2025 national budget signed by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., is “pork-free.” House Assistant Majority Leader and Tingog Rep. Jude Acidre made the statement in response to concerns raised by administration critics that the old pork barrel system was revived under this year’s budget. \“If we’re talking about the pork-barrel style that was in place before, I don’t think that’s the case,” Acidre said. “First, the line items are there.
Second, the guidelines are crafted by executive agencies. The programs themselves will be implemented by the executive agencies. None of these projects, none of these items, have been delegated… to the legislative. So all are within the purview of the executive and the executive agencies,” the Tingog party-list solon explained. “And I think in that case, I don’t think it’s fair to say that these are discretionary and they represent a return to the old pork barrel system,” he added. Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte echoed Acidre’s defense of the recently signed General Appropriations Act (GAA) 2025 where over PHP194 billion in line items had been vetoed by the President, stressing that there was no “discretionary funds” present in the money measure as raised by some sectors. In fact, Villafuerte lamented the former Senate President Franklin Drilon’s proposal for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to put off implementation of certain public works projects, including those meant to fix infrastructure projects heavily damaged by last year’s spate of violent typhoons, until after the midterm elections
PHILIPPINES BUDGET PORK BARREL POLITICS 2025
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