KARAPATAN assails President’s budget still “riddled with pork”

[KARAPATAN Public Information]

PRESS RELEASE

25 September 2026

Reference: Maria Sol Taule, KARAPATAN Deputy Secretary General, 09452966916
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 0918-9790580

KARAPATAN assails President’s budget still “riddled with pork”

KARAPATAN assailed the proposed budget of the Office of the President (OP) for 2027, saying it is “riddled with pork.” The OP budget will be discussed at the Senate on September 25 after it was hurriedly passed without scrutiny at a token hearing at the House of Representatives last September 23.

KARAPATAN deputy secretary general Maria Sol Taule said: “Up to 45% of the OP budget is composed of Confidential and Intelligence Funds (CIF), making it the agency with the largest pork. The OP’s CIF of P4.55 billion also comprises a whopping 42% of the entire CIF allotment for 2027.”

“While Sara Duterte’s misuse of her CIF has hogged the headlines and led to her impeachment trial, Malacañang is conspicuously silent over the fact that Marcos Jr. has consistently been given the biggest CIF allocations over the years. This makes him not only the biggest practitioner of patronage politics. His billions of pesos in CIF is his wherewithal for corruption,” stressed Taule.

“In fact,” said Taule, “the proposed 2027 budget can be characterized as a budget for pork, flood control and militarization.”

“Aside from allotting a total of P10.733 billion in CIF, with Malacañang getting the lion’s share, the proposed 2027 budget has reinstated the much-maligned flood control projects with a vengeance,” said Taule. “A total of P107.4 billion has been earmarked for flood control from the national to the local level.”

Under the Office of the President, the budget of the notorious National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) is slated to rise from P8.08 billion in 2026 to P9.74 billion in 2027, reflecting a 25% increase. Military spending (domestic security) will also be up by 6.8%, making the mulled 2027 budget a budget for intensified fascism, added Taule.

The group added that the consequences of this budget are felt in the form of growing human rights violations. In the four years of the Marcos Jr. administration, KARAPATAN has documented 147 extrajudicial killings, 16 enforced disappearances, 892 arbitrary arrests, and millions of people threatened, harassed and intimidated by the government’s red-tagging machinery, the NTF-ELCAC.

“The billions allocated for militarization, intelligence and the NTF-ELCAC translate into military and police operations that have resulted in attacks on human rights and civil liberties, as well as attacks against communities and human rights defenders,” Taule said. “These documented cases and figures show the human cost of a budget that prioritizes repression and war against its own people.”

Yet, expenditures in 2027 will largely be debt-driven, she said. Up to 37% of the entire budget will be set aside for debt service, leaving limited resources for truly essential expenditures like education, health and housing, which will suffer severe cuts next year. “Economists say that at this rate of borrowing, Marcos Jr. will surpass the Duterte regime’s debt record by the end of 2026,” Taule added.

“This is a budget that calls for cutbacks on social spending but expands opportunities for corruption and fuels fascism,” said Taule. “We call on the Filipino people to delve deeply into and express their outrage at this anomaly-ridden budget.”

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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties.  It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.  It was established in 1995.