Senator Francis Escudero on Monday said he filed a bill seeking to ensure that all government infrastructure projects funded under the national budget are backed by feasibility studies and supported by full transparency safeguards.
Escudero’s Senate Bill 1461, or the proposed Infrastructure Appropriations Integrity Act, aims to prevent irregularities, corruption, and the misuse of public funds in government construction projects.
The measure would require every infrastructure proposal to undergo a thorough technical and financial evaluation before being included in the national budget.
Each project must be equipped with tracking systems such as station numbers, geotagging, geodetic coordinates, and other technology-based identifiers.
“Geotagging is one of the most important mechanisms that allows us to see the actual status of a project—whether work is truly being done or if it’s just sitting idle while the government continues to release funds,” he said.
Escudero said these tools are essential to determine whether funds are being properly used or if projects are merely on paper.
The proposed law also prohibits the inclusion of any project in the National Expenditure Program or the General Appropriations Act without a completed feasibility study. Detailed documentation, including unit price analyses, standard cost of materials, and quantity estimates, must be made available for public review.
“This documentation is a requirement and condition sine qua non for inclusion of any infrastructure project in the NEP and the GAA. All proposed projects must be vetted; otherwise, they should not receive a single centavo in public funds,” he asserted.
The senator’s bill further bans the practice of “budget splitting,” where project funds are divided into phases to bypass fiscal restrictions. He noted that such practices have long been outlawed under the Government Procurement Reform Law, which prohibits contract splitting to prevent corruption.
The senator revealed that he has asked Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sherwin Gatchalian to incorporate the safeguards outlined in Senate Bill 1461, urging their adoption either as a general provision in the 2026 national budget or as a special provision for specific government agencies.
