Cebu archbishop: Budget insertions raise moral, accountability concerns
By Saghir Hussain ·
Cebu’s archbishop has warned that unexplained insertions in the Philippines’ national budget risk hardening corruption and leaving the poorest communities without clinics, classrooms or flood defences.
A moral test for the Marcos administration
Archbishop Alberto “Abet” Uy, speaking in Tagbilaran on Friday, said the practice of slipping unvetted line items into the general appropriations bill after committee hearings had finished “betrayed the social contract” between government and governed. “When money meant for a barangay health station disappears into a contractor’s pocket, a mother gives birth on a bamboo floor,” he said. “That is not politics. That is sin.”
The prelate stopped short of naming specific legislators or projects, but his intervention carries weight in a country where the Catholic Church remains a primary moral reference point for millions. His remarks come as the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) prepares to release year-end bonuses and a ₱5,000 cash gift to state workers this month — a welcome relief for civil servants, yet one that sharpens the contrast between guaranteed pay packets and discretionary funds that vanish without audit trails.
Echoes from Baghdad to New York
The Philippine debate mirrors budget transparency fights elsewhere. In Iraq, the Kurdistan Regional Government revealed last week that Baghdad has transferred only IQD 41 trillion of the IQD 146 trillion owed since 2014, leaving hospitals in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah short of medicine. Meanwhile, at the United Nations, Indian diplomat Shivani Gupta was elected to the Committee on Programme and Budget Coordination, signalling growing Global South demand for stricter fiduciary rules in multilateral spending.
Closer to home, the Philippines’ own Commission on Audit has repeatedly flagged “post-enactment insertions” as a high-risk area. Yet the practice persists, defended by some lawmakers as necessary flexibility for calamity response and local infrastructure gaps.
The human ledger
For residents of coastal barangays in Cebu and Bohol — still rebuilding after Typhoon Odette — the abstraction of “budget insertion” translates into half-finished seawalls and evacuation centres without generators. Small contractors, paid late or not at all, lay off carpenters and masons who then cannot afford school fees.
DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman has pledged tighter earmarking and real-time disclosure of allotment releases. Critics argue that without amending the Constitution’s provision on legislative pork, any administrative fix remains cosmetic.
The archbishop’s intervention frames the issue not as technical but theological: stewardship versus theft. As the 2025 budget cycle approaches, the question is whether Malacañang and Congress will treat public funds as a trust — or as a trough.
When the next storm hits, will the money have reached the seawall, or the middleman?