PCIJ’s Damning Receipt: How P545 Billion in Flood Walls Became Kickback Laundromats

By Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo — December 17, 2025

The Opening Gambit

Ah, the Unprogrammed Appropriations—that noble-sounding fiscal invention, touted as a mere “standby fund” for those oh-so-unpredictable calamities and “activities we do not even anticipate.” How quaint. In reality, it’s the budget’s gilded backdoor, a legalized slush fund where billions vanish into the ether of “excess revenues” and foreign loans, only to re-emerge as priority projects for the politically connected. The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) swears it’s been around for decades, a harmless buffer. Spare me the fairy tale. Under this administration, Unprogrammed Appropriations (UA) has ballooned into a monster, the perfect kickback-laundering mechanism disguised as prudence (Rappler, 2025). And now, for 2026? Congress pretends to trim it while the bicameral circus scrambles to hide the pork piñata. Welcome to Philippine budgeting: where “unforeseen contingencies” mysteriously align with family fortunes and contractor windfalls.

The Forensic Autopsy

Let’s dissect this carcass, piece by rotting piece.

The Numbers Game

The DBM starts with a modest P249.9 billion in the National Expenditure Program (NEP)—already obscene. The House, in a fit of mock austerity, shaves it to P243 billion, heroically axing P6.766 billion in public health emergency benefits. Because who needs healthcare workers when you can realign P35.77 billion from Strengthening Assistance for Government Infrastructure and Social Programs (SAGIP) into foreign-assisted projects that magically appear out of nowhere? Then the Senate swoops in, slashing to P174.56 billion, purging SAGIP entirely and trimming Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) modernization—only to sneak in P250 million for automotive industry revitalization and balloon Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) program support to P4.32 billion. This isn’t legislative scrutiny; it’s a turf war over a pork barrel piñata, where cuts to health fund pet lobbies and “allocables” for the powerful. As bicam deliberations drag on into December 2025, livestreamed for the first time (how generous), we wait to see how much standby pork survives. Absurdity on full display.

PCIJ’s Exposé – The Proof in the Pudding

Treat the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism’s (PCIJ) reports not as mere allegations, but as prima facie evidence of systemic rot. UA exploded from P251 billion in 2022 to a staggering P807 billion in 2023, coinciding precisely with the P545 billion flood control debacle—ghost projects, substandard walls, and billions siphoned via Special Allotment Release Orders (SAROs). This isn’t coincidence; it’s a cause-and-effect relationship of graft. Billions released for “priority” infrastructure not in master plans, awarded to a handful of contractors amid 60% kickback whispers (PCIJ, 14 Dec. 2025). Standby pork at its finest: pre-planned plunder parked in unprogrammed limbo, activated by “excess revenues” that conveniently materialize. Repeated emphasis needed—kickback-laundering mechanism, pure and simple.

The Cast of Characters – Follow the Money (& The Names)

Enter the royals of nepotism. Former Appropriations Chair Zaldy Co, whose family firms like Sunwest and Hi-Tone gorged on billions in flood control contracts—P15.7 billion since 2022 alone—while he steered the budget ship. Coincidental? Please. Then the presidential kin: Sandro Marcos and Martin Romualdez, topping the “allocables” charts with P15.8 billion and P14.4 billion respectively over three years, dwarfing other districts’ shares. Allocables—the new pork, itemized early for Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) feasts, funneled via mysterious formulas only undersecretaries comprehend. Rhetorical question: How does the President’s son and cousin snag the lion’s share of nearly P1.2 trillion in infrastructure goodies? Nepotistic infrastructure, or perhaps kin-flation—where family ties inflate allocations faster than any revenue windfall. Follow the money, and it leads straight to the palace gates.

The Legal Bloodletting

Time to wield the Constitution like the guillotine it should be.

Constitutional Butchery

Article VI, Sections 24 and 25 demand specific, itemized appropriations—no lump sums ceding discretion. Yet UA is the ultimate lump-sum rider, increased by Congress beyond the President’s NEP in brazen defiance of Section 25(1). This isn’t flexibility; it’s a brazen constitutional heist, dressing executive overreach in legislative garb. Funds “unprogrammed” until triggered, allowing post-enactment meddling that mocks the power of the purse.

Precedent as a Weapon

Belgica v. Ochoa (2013) euthanized Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) for post-enactment legislator interference and lump-sum abuses. UA? PDAF 2.0: The Executive Edition, with presidential release powers enabling the same graft. Recent 2025 rulings voided 2024 General Appropriations Act (GAA) provisions raiding Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) reserves for UA, branding them riders and grave abuses. Justices Hernando and Caguioa have scorched UA increases as repugnant, Congress overreaching by bloating standby funds. Why does the Supreme Court tolerate this zombie PDAF shambling on? Inaction here isn’t neutrality—it’s enabling.

Statutory Shaming

Republic Act No. 3019 (RA 3019)’s Section 3(e) and (g) perfectly match the kickbacks, undue injury, and disadvantageous contracts in flood control ghosts. Republic Act No. 6713 (RA 6713)’s ethical standards? Trampled by officials leveraging positions for family firms and allocables. Project insertions, opaque SAROs, favored contractors—tick every box. Is the Ombudsman asleep at the wheel, or merely waiting for engraved invitations while billions bleed?

The Demands – No More Polite Requests

Enough theater.

For Transparency

Immediate online publication of every SARO, Special Budget Request, and project document for UA releases—real-time, unredacted. Sunlight as disinfectant, not optional.

For Accountability

DBM, DPWH, Commission on Audit (COA)—face the music. Criminal referrals for implicated officials and contractors. Mandatory lifestyle checks on Co kin, Marcos-Romualdez allies. Disqualify flagged firms permanently. Ombudsman: wake up.

For Reform

Kill UA or cripple it—mandate full line-itemization, cap it strictly for disasters. Existing Calamity and Contingent Funds suffice; no need for this parallel plunder pipeline.

For Judicial Action

Supreme Court, strike down the 2026 UA framework preemptively. Your 2025 PhilHealth ruling cracked the door—kick it open. Inaction is complicity in abstraction, aiding the slow plunder of public trust.

In the end, this UA scandal isn’t mere fiscal folly—it’s the death rattle of budgetary integrity, where “Bayanihan to Heal as One” twists into bayanihan to steal as one. The Filipino people deserve better than a government that treats the treasury as a family vault. Labanan ang katiwalian—or watch the republic drown in its own flood of corruption.

Key Citations

• De Leon, Dwight. “How Much Unprogrammed Appropriations in 2026 Budget?” Rappler, 2025.
• Latoza, Guinevere, “Pork Accounts for Two-Thirds of Proposed 2026 DPWH Budget.” PCIJ.org, 14 Dec. 2025.
• Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) Reports on Flood Control Projects and Unprogrammed Appropriations. Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, various dates 2023–2025.
• Republic Act No. 3019. “Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.” Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, 17 Aug. 1960.
• Republic Act No. 6713. “Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.” Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines, 20 Feb. 1989.
• Supreme Court of the Philippines. Belgica v. Ochoa. G.R. No. 208566, 19 Nov. 2013, LawPhil.
• The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines. Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines.