In every democracy, a budget should be a moral document, an accounting of values as much as of pesos. In the Philippines, however, the national budget has often mirrored deeper problems of governance and accountability. Behind official appropriations lie long-standing concerns about so-called “budget insertions,” a practice that critics describe as the quiet reallocation or addition of funds after deliberations have supposedly closed, often reconciled in the bicameral conference committee, where transparency is limited.
The term “budget insertion” may sound technical, but it reflects a political reality that has endured for decades despite reform attempts. Even after the Supreme Court declared the Priority Development Assistance Fund unconstitutional in Belgica v. Ochoa in 2013, and later struck down specific acts and practices under the Disbursement Acceleration Program in Araullo v. Aquino in 2014, the controversy around discretionary reallocations has persisted under other labels such as “special purpose funds” or “realignments.” Despite digitization and portals meant to widen public access, such as the Department of Budget and Management’s transparency initiatives and Freedom of Information pages, the public typically sees figures and documents, not the individual authorship behind every late change.
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano’s recent call for a “clean slate” snap election directly addresses this fatigue, arguing that mass resignation and a fresh mandate are necessary to rebuild trust in institutions. Regardless of one’s view of the proposal, it underscores public anxiety about how budgets are written, amended, and implemented.
Each untraceable peso carries real-world consequences, unfinished barangay health centers, underfunded schools, and farm-to-market roads that stop mid-trail. The problem is not only corruption, but also repetition —the sense that irregularities recur across cycles. Recent audit headlines have highlighted “ghost projects,” overpayments, and unliquidated cash advances in various jurisdictions, underscoring the need for earlier, more proactive controls rather than post-mortem findings.
“The problem is not only corruption, but also repetition —the sense that irregularities recur across cycles. Recent audit headlines have highlighted “ghost projects,” overpayments, and unliquidated cash advances in various jurisdictions, underscoring the need for earlier, more proactive controls rather than post-mortem findings.”
Reform requires more than outrage. It begins with fiscal truth and visible accountability. Real-time budget tracking, including data on sponsors, implementing agencies, and project completion, should be a national standard. The Department of Budget and Management and the Commission on Audit could expand pre-release screening for major allocations and integrate public dashboards that geotag projects from start to finish. Notably, the government’s recent pilots to harden budget documents, including a blockchain publication portal, point to technical avenues that, if broadened, could strengthen traceability from proposal to payment.
Whistleblower protections and a permanent Budget Integrity Office would further ensure that those who expose irregularities are shielded, not punished. And because trust is ultimately a measure of public sentiment over time, connecting these reforms to outcomes that citizens can verify is crucial. Current perception data show the Philippines at 33/100 in Transparency International’s 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking 114th of 180, an external benchmark that will rise or fall with the credibility of these fixes.
Budgets reveal the soul of a government. When insertions become the norm, they also become the nation’s moral measure. Cayetano’s proposal may or may not be constitutionally viable, but it highlights a deeper public yearning for transparency, truth, and the restoration of integrity in public finance. Reform will come not from slogans but from systems that let citizens see where every tax peso goes.
Until such reforms take hold, every election — whether snap or scheduled — risks becoming a reshuffle of the same debts, the true revolution the Philippines needs is not fought at the polls, but built at the budget table.
Troi Santos is a New York–based photojournalist and columnist covering global politics, defense, and diaspora affairs.
