Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Wednesday, December 17, dismissed claims of an alleged ₱17.9-billion Senate pork barrel in the proposed 2026 national budget, saying the amounts were realigned to increase subsistence allowances for uniformed personnel.
Lacson said accusations by Rep. Antonio Tinio amounted either to “trabahong tamad” or a malicious attempt to destabilize the Senate amid heightened scrutiny of the budget process.
He stressed that the funds cited as “Senate pork” were earmarked to raise subsistence allowances for personnel of the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Fire Protection, and the Philippine Coast Guard.
“Rep. Tinio is either too lazy to do his research, or he is malevolently destabilizing the Senate to take the heat off the House of Representatives,” Lacson said.
The rebuttal followed Lacson’s earlier warning that he would refuse to sign the bicameral conference committee report on the 2026 budget unless provisions granting a massive increase for the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) and billions for potentially unvetted farm-to-market roads were corrected.
Tinio had claimed that the Senate version of the 2026 General Appropriations Bill contained ₱17.9 billion in alleged “LGU pork” and included cuts to rank-and-file government employee benefits that were supposedly redirected to discretionary funds.
In a DZBB radio interview, Lacson clarified that the amounts were realigned from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund to additional subsistence allowances for uniformed services, adding that the change was an institutional amendment with no personal gain for any proponent.
Lacson reiterated the Senate’s commitment to transparency and urged the public and media to remain vigilant against budget manipulation, noting that all Senate amendments were openly proposed, transcribed, and are now part of the official legislative record.
