Open bicam meeting to CSOs, media — budget watchdog

The coming bicameral conference meeting for the proposed 2027 national budget should be open to the media and civil society organizations for full transparency in terms of the proposals for amendments inserted into the bill, a budget watchdog said.

AJ Montes, the co-convenor of the People’s Budget Coalition (PBC), echoed the sentiment after their group had flagged billions of soft and hard pork amendments inside the House of Representatives version of the budget.

He further stated that even based on the previous year, the House’s budget process had far more issues compared to that of the Senate, particularly when it came to the lower chamber’s engagement with civil society organizations (CSOs).

“I think the approach of the House of Representatives is far different from the Senate which is very consultative,” Montes said during a radio program.

Montes said that he drew such comparison due to the fact that they were not afforded a sit-down meeting and were merely provided three minutes to speak throughout the entire budgetary process at the House.

At the Senate, he said that current Finance Committee Chairperson Senator JV Ejercito and former chair Senator Sherwin Gatchalian conducted separate meetings with CSOs at their respective offices.

Even with their observation of a more organized budget by the Senate, Montes said that there were still issues that arose when it came to the bicam meetings.

The budget watchdog explained that during the previous bicam hearing on the budget, lawmakers at the lower house blocked the move of Gatchalian to reduce budget allocations for infrastructure to cater to other sectors such as health and education.

Montes said that the reason for such reservations was due to the fact that the amounts provided to the Department of Public Works and Highways were insertions of lawmakers.

“[The House] was willing to stop the hearings, to hostage the budget, to have delays, so that they can get their projects,” he said.

Montes likewise stated that there were times during the bicam hearings that the livestream would be paused, especially when there were negotiations on the part of lawmakers present in the panel.

With such observations, he reiterated the importance of CSOs and the media in the meeting in order to ensure transparency and accountability when it came to the national budget.

On Monday, 12 October, the House approved on third reading its version of the ₱7.2-trillion budget for 2027, receiving just 13 negative votes from lawmakers.

The opposing lawmakers and budget watchdogs alike have criticized the budget for having billions of pork allocations particularly when it came to the focus on infrastructure and subsidy programs.

Ejercito, for his part, has vowed to review the amendments of the House to ensure that the budget would tend to the sectors that need the funding the most.