Marcos, DBM can’t wash palms of ‘mangled’ 2025 finances – Ex-finance chief

‘He ought to have been conscious of what was happening, and he had the chance to veto quite a lot of these items,’ says former finance secretary and enterprise chief Ramon del Rosario Jr.

MANILA, Philippines – Enterprise chief and former finance secretary Ramon del Rosario Jr. has put forth an vital query that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has not but totally addressed in reference to the flood management scandal: Why didn’t he use his veto energy to cease the insertions within the “mangled” 2025 finances? 

On Monday, October 13, Del Rosario stated in an interview on the One Information enterprise present Cash Talks that Marcos can not wash his palms of duty in what has been described because the worst finances in Philippine historical past. It noticed P289 billion in web insertions by Congress within the 2025 Division of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) finances, of which solely P26 billion was vetoed by Marcos. (Figures are from the Folks’s Price range Coalition’s evaluation of the 2025 and 2026 nationwide budgets.)

“I’m sorry to say, even the President, when he stated, ‘Mahiya naman kayo,’ (Disgrace on you), that’s somewhat unusual for him to say as a result of it was his finances to begin with. And he ought to have been conscious of what was happening, and he had the chance to veto quite a lot of these items,” Del Rosario stated, referring to Marcos’ statements in his fourth State of the Nation Tackle final July. In his speech, Marcos uncovered corruption in poorly completed flood management initiatives.

If he was not conscious of what was happening, Del Rosario stated “it ought to have been dropped at his consideration by the DBM [Department of Budget and Management] and the totally different division secretaries whose budgets had been mangled.”  

This manner, Marcos “might have acted on it no less than with full info,” and “if he didn’t have the data, his division secretaries weren’t doing their job,” he stated.  

Price range Secretary Amenah Pangandaman has tried to distance herself from the mangled finances by saying she had no position within the Nationwide Expenditure Program revisions. The NEP, additionally referred to as the President’s finances, is ready by the DBM and submitted to Congress for evaluation.

Del Rosario, now a co-convenor of a multisectoral group referred to as Roundtable for Inclusive Improvement, stated corruption in flood management and different public works initiatives acquired larger and greater due to “greed” and since the checks in opposition to corruption failed. 

“An increasing number of, it grew to become a system the place everybody was in on it. The best way they did it was there was one thing for everybody: the congressmen, the senators would connive with the chief department so that there have been percentages given to everybody alongside the best way, all the best way, together with the contractors. 

“And that’s the system that advanced, and since everybody was getting a share of it, everybody determined to be tight-lipped and it simply grew and grew and grew, till it grew to become the monster that it now could be. And now everyone is saying, how did this occur? It occurred as a result of folks let it occur.” 

The best way ahead, Del Rosario stated, is to ensure these accountable are held accountable, particularly the “massive fish.” 

“You can not get away with all of this and suppose you could get it completed by simply going after district engineers…. It’s important to transcend that, you’ve acquired to go to legislators, very senior folks,” he stated.

Primarily based on their conversations with folks within the govt and legislative branches of presidency, Del Rosario stated he believes “a rising variety of them sincerely wish to do the precise factor,” though “some are in a defensive mode” as a result of some forces are “exploiting the state of affairs.” 

“However we’re being very clear about our place: stick with the Structure, let’s not idiot round with extra-constitutional concepts yet again. Let’s make our democracy work, is what we’re saying,” he stated. 

He stated the greater than 20 organizations and 100 people within the Folks’s Price range Coalition, are demanding that the Marcos administration guarantee that the 2026 finances is “by no means a repeat of 2025.” 

Primarily based on the evaluation by the Folks’s Price range Coalition of the 2026 finances, Del Rosario stated it nonetheless had round P230 billion for pork barrel that can go to social packages that “make it sound like they’re extremely wanted.”  

He stated the cash ought to as a substitute be allotted to the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, which has very particular pointers the place beneficiaries are entitled to sure quantities primarily based on sure college attendance and diet circumstances.

Del Rosario warned that the folks’s anger will proceed until these in energy “present critical intent to vary issues.” 

“I believe we’ve acquired to get up as a folks and say we deserve higher than this.” 

Del Rosario is chairman and CEO of conglomerate PHINMA Company, which is concerned in schooling, development, hospitality, vitality, and housing. 

He served briefly as finance secretary from 1992 to 1993 in the course of the Fidel Ramos administration. – Rappler.com