‘Marcos should regain control of national budget’

MANILA, Philippines —  President Marcos should regain control of the budget process, former Senate president Franklin Drilon said yesterday, noting that alignments made by Congress resulted in a “mangled” and the “most corrupt” budget he has ever seen.

“I was in the Senate for 24 years. I looked at the budget for 24 years. This is the most corrupt. They (lawmakers) really mangled the budget and the executive branch can no longer recognize it,” Drilon said in Filipino over “Storycon” on One News.

“Regardless of the legalities of what has happened, the most important thing is that the President has lost control over the budget (process)… This is evident because the budget was mangled and the funds that were supposed to fund the programs necessary to move our economy disappeared,” Drilon added.

He said lawmakers “went overboard” when they moved some of the programs proposed by Malacañang to unprogrammed appropriations to fund their own projects.

“They (executive branch) can no longer recognize what the economic managers crafted in the National Expenditure Program,” he said, referring to the original budget proposal submitted by Malacañang to Congress.

Drilon, a former justice and executive secretary who served four non-consecutive terms in the Senate, said Marcos “has lost control over his own economic programs” as reflected in the approved budget or the General Appropriations Act (GAA).

“I urge the President: recover that control for the good of the country,” he added.

The former Senate president said Marcos can do this by making sure that the releases of the funds “are proper,” such as by realigning the budget to fund programs that were defunded by lawmakers.

Despite his criticisms of the 2025 budget, Drilon said it would be difficult for critics to challenge the constitutionality of the 2025 GAA based on the supposed blank items in the bicameral conference committee report.

“For me, the General Appropriations Act is valid and the supposed blanks in the bicameral conference report cannot be used to invalidate (it),” he said.

What matters, he said, is the printed and enrolled copy that was submitted to the President. It contains a certification signed by the