Pork barrel politics remains deeply embedded in government spending, with lawmakers allegedly inserting billions of pesos into the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) budget without President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s knowledge, Senator Erwin Tulfo said Wednesday.
Tulfo cited the case of Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co, whose allocations reportedly surged from PHP519 million in 2022 to PHP7 billion in the 2025 National Expenditure Program (NEP).
“That’s the problem. You’d think DPWH prepared the budget, but I’m very sure the President had no knowledge since the NEP is already preloaded with items,” Tulfo said in an ANC interview.
He lamented that despite the pork barrel scam a decade ago, lawmakers still dictate project allocations and pressure district engineers to follow their instructions or risk losing their posts.
“In short, it’s pork barrel… pinaganda lang nila pero it’s still pork barrel,” he said.
At Tuesday’s Senate Blue Ribbon hearing, former DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan admitted that a “leadership fund” was inserted into the NEP for lawmakers’ requests. But Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson, who chairs the committee, rejected the practice, saying insertions should only be made during budget deliberations—not at the NEP stage.