Squeaky Clean? Or Just Another Coat of Polish on the Same Rotten Pork Barrel?

Tito Sotto’s “Cleanest Ever” Certification: Now With ₱150B Shadow Pork Endorsement Stamp

By Louis ‘Barok’ C Biraogo — January 6, 2026

MGA ka-kweba, countrymen, and those still listening to the whispers from Malacañang — welcome back to Kweba ni Barok.

While the nation is busy ringing in the new year, we have yet another episode in our national telenovela: the 2026 national budget. President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has signed the ₱6.793-trillion General Appropriations Act — but with a dramatic flourish: a veto of ₱92.5 billion in unprogrammed appropriations. And Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III? He immediately declared it “by far the cleanest ever,” adding that the veto was meant to make it “squeaky clean.”

Squeaky clean. Like a freshly washed plate that still smells of yesterday’s meal.

But let’s be clear: Is this genuine reform, or a masterclass in political theater hiding deeper rot?

My answer is unambiguous:

This is political theater at its finest — a scripted veto designed to cast Marcos as the hero, while leaving ₱150.9 billion in “zombie funds” that can still come back to life and bite when “excess revenue” arrives or new loans are secured.

Shadow pork, my friends. The pork didn’t disappear; it just changed color and hid in the dark.

***“Veto the crumbs, keep the bakery—congrats, we’re all on a pork-free diet* (*except the ₱150.9 B seconds).”***

The Ghost of 2025 Still Haunts Us

Before we applaud the “cleanest ever,” let us first revisit 2025 — the budget many called the “most corrupt ever”:

₱540 billion in flood control insertions
Hundreds of ghost projects fully paid for but never materialized
A gutted PhilHealth
Blank pages in the GAA to allow post-signature insertions

And who signed that abomination? Marcos himself.

Now he’s suddenly the champion of fiscal prudence? The anti-pork crusader?
Vetoing ₱92.5 billion after approving that monster is like wiping one corner of a house already engulfed in flames.
This is a rebranding exercise — an attempt to salvage plummeting approval ratings after the 2025 scandal exposed kickbacks, fleeing officials, and whistleblowers who mysteriously met their end.

The Cast of Characters

Vicente Sotto III

Our Senate President, now the self-appointed champion of the “squeaky clean” budget.
Is this statesmanship, or a final performance to cement his legacy before retirement?
He boasts of Senate “safeguards” against patronage — yet how did unprogrammed appropriations reach ₱243 billion in the bicameral version? And why does ₱150.9 billion remain untouched?
His rhetoric is pure theater: celebrating a “clean” budget while billions in shadow funds lurk in the background.

Sherwin Gatchalian

The Senate Finance Committee chair who himself declared that unprogrammed funds are “a form of pork barrel.”
There it is. He legitimized this very budget, yet his own admission undermines the entire narrative.
Peak institutional hypocrisy — acknowledging the rot while still pushing the bill through.

The Supporting Cast

Faustino “Bojie” Dy III — defending House territory while loudly championing transparency and safeguards for the remaining unprogrammed funds
Ralph Recto — managing public perception while denying delays
Edgar Erice and the opposition — threatening Supreme Court challenges, but will it go beyond petitions?

The Systemic Rot

Unprogrammed appropriations are, by design, a blank check.
Standby funds to be used only when excess revenue appears or new loans are approved — but in practice, a backdoor for patronage, ghost projects, and midnight insertions.

Vetoing ₱92.5 billion while leaving ₱150.9 billion intact?
Still a massive loophole.
And why not zero? Because they’re “needed for emergencies,” they say.
But after the 2025 flood control fiasco — 421 ghost projects, billions vanished into the pockets of connected contractors — should we still trust those “emergencies”?

This is the corruption ecosystem:

A COA that audits too late
A pliant Ombudsman
A Congress playing House vs. Senate turf wars while the people’s money disappears

Panfilo Lacson stands as the symbol of why scandals repeat: no criminal liability for insertions, no real-time oversight, no genuine prosecutions.

Two Possible Futures

My friends, I see only two futures ahead:

Continued plunder
A Philippines forever flooded by corruption — both literal and figurative — while the poor grow poorer.
Genuine reform
Governance truly for the people, not for the politicians.

Transparency alone is not enough. We need the complete dismantling of the pork barrel system.
Vetoes are not enough. We need prosecutions — from DPWH officials to their enablers in Congress.

The radical reforms we must demand: