If these were a case of barbarians at the gates, the barbarians are no longer at the gates. They have in fact entered the gates and are now in the Senate.
The sole political context: Chiz Escudero wants to be the next Senate president of the 20th Senate. But his ambition does not cost a free lunch. He must win his way by means of projects not only to his fellow senator allies, but for himself as well. In addition, nothing can stop him as well from using these insertions to buy their acquittal votes for Sara Duterte. Get the equation?
In other words, our money will be used to fan Escudero’s grand ambition, and then to possibly buy the verdict of the impeachment court. It is an evil operation by hook or by crook that only a scoundrel can plan.
In the “small” bicam, Escudero arrogated unto himself the function of the finance chair to introduce the insertions in the General Appropriations Act.
Our basis for these is a 103-page document sent our way that details Escudero’s grand budget plan. Of his top 10 budget insertions, the biggest allocation goes to Bulacan province in the sum of P12,084,500,000.
Bulacan, here’s what to expect from the Escudero insertion: P2,930,000,000 for flood control, P3,260,500,000 for roads, P3,609,000,000 for buildings, and P2,285,000,000 for street lights. Bulacan, that is if these funds will truly go to these projects. Because are they really for Bulacan or for somebody from Bulacan?
Second placer is Escudero’s home province of Sorsogon in the sum of P9,136,000,000. This is broken down to P1,165,000,000 for flood control, P3,062,000,000 for roads, P525,000,000 for bridges, and P4,384,000,000 for buildings.
On 5th place is “Davao” – with no indication if this is Davao city or Davao region (5 provinces) with an allocation of P7,213,500,000. On 9th place is Valenzuela city allocated P4,251,800,000. Notice the whole numbers, which is not the case with government budgeting that use real numbers according to actual costs.
“Davao” can benefit two senators: Bong Go (he now votes in Davao Oriental as his new bailiwick since the 2025 elections) and Bato dela Rosa (Davao del Sur). From Valenzuela city is Sherwin Gatchalian.
For reference: the same document given us was also examined and reviewed by two publications: politico.com.ph and Bilyonaryo News Channel. The reader is invited to peruse the articles in these hyperlinks.
Both publications note that Escudero’s entries lack engineering details and geographic references. There are multiple entries on road projects repeated under segmented kilometer markings. Same routes are split into Package A to Package D. We know however, what these mean. It is the usual attempt to split projects into smaller portions to avoid audit thresholds.
In the Bulacan solar street lighting projects, different highways were each allocated P100,000,000 regardless of actual road length. It leaves us to wonder whether actual needs assessments were conducted as required.
For flood control projects, one was a “Construction of Flood Mitigation Structures – Nationwide.” No provinces were mentioned. There were no hazard maps presented to justify the projects. It befits us to ask – are these ghost projects?
If not ghost projects, are these politically motivated? It is a valid question because a major part is allocated as “Projects for Bong Go” in the grand total of P3,020,500,000.
The Go projects are for the construction/completion/equipping of Barangay Health Centers, Super Health Centers/Rural Health Units, Completion/Upgrading/Repair/Equipping of RHU/SHC, LGU Hospitals, DOH Hospitals, Philippine General Hospital, and ambulances for various cities and municipalities.
To single out one senator for budgetary insertions is rather weird, to say the least. And why the Rodrigo Duterte handyman-devotee Bong Go? All of the Go projects cut across all the regions of the country. Is it to lay the ground for his run for the presidency in 2028? These questions must be asked of the Senate, even though transparency is not a talent of Escudero. These are peoples’ money and the people have the right to know – despite our conviction that we have scoundrels, not senators, in the Senate.
We thus ask, in the case of Bulacan – why Bulacan? Bulacan is the home province of the Villanueva evangelical dynastic family whose advocacy is “citizens’ battle against corruption.” Is it? Joel Villanueva wants to be Senate majority leader once again and that is no secret. We would be so stupid not to think of a quid pro quo between Escudero and Villanueva. Villanueva’s record in government is not clean.
Then there is a long section on Escudero’s budget insertions for various roads and highways all over the country. One easily realizes that these are indeed insertions because the particular pages in the 2025 General Appropriations Act are indicated.
Another long section is on construction of “multipurpose buildings” in various municipalities in the country, without indicating why these buildings are needed. They number by the hundreds. Some “multipurpose halls” are for rehabilitation. What is disturbing is there are more multipurpose buildings than school buildings. Something is askew.
Finally, the grand total of Escudero’s secret misadventure probably masquerading as larceny – P142,717,586,000.
These monies that run by the monstrous billions are no breadcrumbs. At the end of one fiscal year, they are more than enough to make each beneficiary senator a multimillionaire.
We are writing this at a time of Tropical Storm Crising’s floods devastating many parts of the country and the metro. We know for a fact that in many instances places have been robbed of money intended for flood control projects. One cause of floods is thieving politicians and their insatiable greed.
We must expose Escudero’s grand secret that makes a fool of each and every Filipino citizen.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
