The Philippine government’s formal transparency mechanisms are subverted by politicians mastering strategic manipulation of the budget process to secure hundreds of billions of pesos in pork barrel. The current petitions with the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the 2024 and 2025 budgets underscore the true extent of budget-making not for the national interest but for narrow political ends.
The Philippines secured the top spot for budget transparency in Asia and sixth spot in the world for budget oversight, based on the 2023 Open Budget Survey results. The surface-level findings however conceal how powerful political dynasties and elites still over-determine where funds go. These vested interests will find creative ways to subvert hyped new formal measures, such as on government procurement and others.
The secretive operations of Congress’ bicameral conference committee in 2024 is a case in point. Its massive last-minute insertions and realignments were done behind closed doors, without independent or civil society observers nor even just public disclosure of minutes. Yet they were with the president’s consent and passed without veto, as was within his power.
The president submitted the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP) to Congress on August 2, 2023. The House of Representatives (HOR) and Senate took 118 calendar days to approve their respective versions of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB). The 337 members of Congress, with 313 in the HOR and 24 in the Senate, made a total of Php618.4 billion worth of changes to the budget. These at least had public budget hearings, albeit tightly controlled.
The powerful 27-member bicameral conference committee, however, made a total of Php1.13 trillion worth of changes to the budget in just 11 calendar days — equivalent to almost 20% of the Php5.78 trillion budget. This included the Php449.5 billion increase in unprogrammed appropriations made to carve out space for the same amount in pork barrel projects in the programmed appropriations. These projects were funded by, among others, diverting Php89.9 billion in scarce PhilHealth funds in violation of Filipinos’ right to health.
The availability of budget documents is an important transparency measure. Yet while formal documents are available, they are dense and deliberately vague while real decision-making remains hidden.
Congress technically provides oversight, but this is compromised by being the country’s center-of-gravity of pork barrel. The Commission on Audit’s (COA) reports are welcome but delayed, incomplete and rarely lead to prosecutions or real consequences. Corruption at the highest levels of government has become normalized and done with impunity.
Public participation is tokenistic and civil society involvement is overshadowed by powerful political interests. Meanwhile, the Philippine government’s attacks on civil society it finds disagreeable continue, including worsening judicial attacks on non-government organizations (NGOs) on spurious charges of terrorism or terrorist financing.
It is ironic for the tokenistically open, systematically opaque, and elite-dominated Philippine government to be hosting the 2025 Open Government Partnership (OGP) Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting (APRM). True openness means, above all, welcoming even civil society voices that the government disagrees with, rather than choosing and involving only those who consent.
Worsening poverty and hunger in the country despite hyped economic growth underscores how important genuine openness and transparency are for real development and democracy. What are open secrets however are endemic corruption and fund misuse.###
