Malacañang on Monday said President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was not initially aware of the alleged P100-billion worth of individual insertions in the 2025 national budget but is now determined to uncover questionable allocations, particularly those tied to flood control projects.
Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary Claire Castro made the remark following revelations by Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson that nearly all members of the 19th Congress allegedly made their own insertions into the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
“If this was already exposed and laid out by Senator Lacson, that is precisely what the President wants to oppose,” Castro said in a briefing.
“It is also the reason why investigations are now being conducted into anomalous flood control projects,” she added.
The PCO official explained that Mr. Marcos was not privy to the specific insertions during the drafting and passage of the spending plan.
“When the budget was being prepared, the President was definitely not aware of the details of these insertions by senators,” Castro said.
“But now, after seeing what happened to the funds allocated for flood control projects, this has prompted him to dig deeper into the nature of these allocations,” she added.
Malacañang said the ongoing probe aims to trace how the contentious insertions were funneled and whether they were used appropriately.
The President earlier ordered a review of infrastructure spending after red flags were raised on several flood control contracts across regions.
Congress passed the P5.768-trillion 2025 GAA in July, with the executive branch vowing that every peso will be used for programs directly benefiting Filipinos.
