• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Sen. Francis Escudero is pushing a measure that will allow local government units (LGUs) to decide what infrastructure projects should be implemented in their areas.
In the forthcoming 2026 General Appropriations Act and beyond, Escudero said this should be the guiding principle in proposing infrastructure projects, and their inclusion in the national budget, and the release of funds for implementation.
Under his proposed Grassroots Infrastructure Planning and Budgeting Act, Escudero said all infrastructure projects must have prior endorsement of the Regional Development Council and either the Provincial Development Council or the City/Municipal Development Council and their respective Sanggunian before these are included in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the President to Congress.
“At the NEP, no project should proceed if it is not needed by the province or town. Only those that are priorities and most important to them should be included,” Escudero said in a statement.
The veteran legislator explained that most, if not all of the abuses committed with regard to the funding of infrastructure projects, are the result of the arbitrary moves of legislators, in connivance with officials in the Executive branch, to introduce items that never passed scrutiny at any point of the budget process.
“This is the very issue being raised with regard to insertions in the budget”, said Escudero, who noted that these projects came out of nowhere and were included in the national budget without anyone really knowing if they were feasible, needed or even real.
An examination of the General Appropriations Acts (GAA) before 2025, alongside the examinations conducted by the Commission on Audit, would reveal the presence of ghost projects and other anomalies in the implementation of infrastructure projects.
The bill states that the prior endorsement of the RDCs and/or the local governing bodies is a requisite or condition sine qua non (absolutely indispensable) for the inclusion of any infrastructure project in the GAA and for the subsequent release of any allotment for its implementation.
Escudero urged his colleagues in the Senate and the House of Representatives to prioritize the approval of the measure as it will address the issues that have been dominating the national conversation and strengthen the reforms that are being introduced with respect to the budget process.*
