Tag: 2025 budget

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On the President’s Call for Cabinet Secretaries’ Courtesy Resignations

More than recalibrating his administration by calling for the courtesy resignations of his Cabinet members, the President must exercise his “persuasive” powers over Congress, especially the House of Representatives, to get rid of indiscriminate and self-aggrandizing “insertions” and “pork barrel” in the forthcoming congressional deliberations of the 2026 budget measure.

The 2025 General Appropriations Act is like a deadly virus that is choking the country to perdition. With the President taking the lead in at least tempering the insatiable greed of some legislators, I vow to do my share in helping him come up with a national budget that is truly responsive to the people’s clamor for sanity and a little timidity among the members of Congress in addressing the needs of their constituents.

With the exception of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), eliminating all other forms of “ayuda” and integrating them under the 4Ps in the National Expenditure Program all the way to the Enrolled Bill should be a good start. As I have consistently posited – AKAP, AICS, TUPAD, MAIFIP and similar social services programs may be integrated under the 4Ps in compliance with RA 11310, which I intend to amend through a bill that I will file when I assume office as an elected Senator of the Republic.

It is time to give the Filipino people a chance to benefit more from the taxes that they pay out of their hard-earned money.

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Integrating Ayudas Under 4Ps Tops Ping Lacson’s Legislative Agenda

Integrating all forms of “ayuda” under the government’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) program will top the legislative agenda of incoming Senator Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson in the 20th Congress.

Lacson said Monday that this is part of his push for good governance, along with an intensified scrutiny of the national budget bill, upon his return to the Senate.

“This early, I have instructed my prospective legislative staff to draft an amendment to Republic Act 11310, the law on the 4Ps program, to expand it and address the sectors covered by the other forms of ayuda that have become confusing and have become a political tool used by some politicians for their campaigns, both during and outside of the campaign period,” Lacson said in Filipino, in an interview on Bombo Radyo Philippines.

“Expanding the 4Ps will be better because the 4Ps has a data-driven list of beneficiaries; unlike other ayuda programs that are indiscriminate and are prone to duplication like TUPAD, AKAP, AICS and MAIP,” he added.

In Filipino: Integrated Ayuda sa Ilalim ng 4Ps, Isusulong ni Ping Lacson

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EXPLAINER: Implications of the ‘Blanks’ in the 2025 Budget

In interviews on NET25 and DZRH, former Sen. Ping Lacson answers questions on the ‘blanks’ in the 2025 budget, and their implications on Filipinos.

Related: On the Reported ‘Blank’ Appropriations in the 2025 Budget

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On the Reported ‘Blank’ Appropriations in the 2025 Budget

The bicam report on the 2025 budget that reportedly contained blank appropriations and was signed by the bicameral conference committee members looks like a repeat of the 2019 General Appropriations Act, when former President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed P95.3 billion upon the then Sotto-led Senate’s strong representation after we discovered anomalous entries in the printed Enrolled Bill that were not reflected in our ratified bicam report.

But the big difference now is, it seems nobody among the present senators dared – or cared – to scrutinize the budget documents. Hence, this controversy now brewing.

The Filipino taxpayers deserve an explanation. An examination of the Enrolled Bill printed by the House of Representatives and comparing it with the Ratified Bicam report will expose those responsible.

Unless we examine the Enrolled Bill that Congress transmitted to Malacañang, we can’t determine yet who filled in those blanks – House of Representatives, or Malacañang. A bicam report cannot be amended; it is only subject to being ratified or rejected by either or both houses.

If the Enrolled Bill is different from the ratified bicam report, the HoR being in charge of the printing should explain, as in the case of the heavily vetoed 2019 GAA. If the Enrolled Bill still contained the blank spaces, the burden shifts to the executive branch, particularly the Department of Budget and Management.

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Making Noise on the 2025 Budget Makes Sense After All

If there is one amendment in the 2025 GAA that is worth mentioning, Congress has rectified a legally flawed provision under the 2024 GAA by deleting Special Provision (d) under the Unprogrammed Appropriations which allowed the executive branch to realign “excess PhilHealth funds” to the National Treasury.

This bars the Department of Finance from gobbling up PhilHealth funds in 2025. This may have also rendered the pending SC petitions on this particular issue moot and academic.

Making noise makes sense after all.