Ex-DOF chiefs to Marcos: Keep 2027 budget clean

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos should keep the 2027 national budget clean and transparent and free of congressional insertions, according to former finance chiefs who also urged him to exercise his veto power more.

In an interview with Bilyonaryo, Monetary Board member and former finance secretary Benjamin Diokno said Marcos must send a strong signal and say to both supporters and critics: “This is my budget. Don’t mess with this budget. I want this to be a clean and transparent budget.”

The government is proposing a record P7.2-trillion national budget next year, up six percent from this year’s allocation of P6.793 trillion.

Congress has repeatedly increased the budget beyond the executive proposal in recent years, creating what Diokno called “the source of corruption.”

“I will exercise my line-item veto power. That’s an awesome power of the president. Not even the US president has that power, line-item veto power,” he added.

Diokno warned that the expanded National Tax Allotment, now at 40 percent of national tax collections, remains underutilized by local government units and that the Local Government Support Fund has become some sort of “pork barrel.”

“For example, some LGUs are supposed to spend 20 percent of their budget for capital projects, but most of them don’t do that because they’re waiting for the congressman or the senators to help them instead of spending their own money,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said the “state of the economy is very uncertain” and the 6.5 percent to eight percent growth is no longer possible, given the current trajectory.

“We’ll probably hit something like maybe five, six percent. As long as we can continue to grow at that rate for the next 20 years, that’s more than enough,” he added.

Diokno said he remains optimistic that the government’s revised 3.5 to 4.5 percent growth target for 2026 is achievable, as the US-Iran war will soon be over.

In a separate interview with “MoneyTalks” on One News, Arroyo-era finance secretary Gary Teves urged Marcos to scrutinize insertions during the legislative process and to monitor implementation closely.

“When the budget is approved by Congress, scrutinize it very carefully and ensure that there are not too many inserted items there. And to the extent that they might do that, then exercise his veto powers more rigorously,” he said.

During budget implementation, Marcos should rigorously monitor spending, spend more time in the provinces and ensure the budget is being followed carefully.

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