Senator Erwin Tulfo on Tuesday called on the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to be proactive in flagging questionable items in the National Expenditures Program (NEP) to ensure that there were no insertions from politicians.

“Lahat po naman kayo dito sa Executive, well wala pa nung panahon pa po ni Napoles. Pero, what we are seeing here is parang pork barrel—plain and simple. Kasi ang nangyayari ngayon, flood control programs, parang deja vu po ng pork barrel scam ni Napoles (All of you here in the Executive, well, you weren’t around during the time of Napoles. But what we are seeing now looks like pork barrel—plain and simple. Because what’s happening with these flood control programs feels like déjà vu of the Napoles pork barrel scam),” Tulfo said during the second day of the Development Budget Coordination Committee’s briefing for the proposed 2026 national budget. 

“Mas malala nga ito dahil itong mga budget sa anomalya ng mga infrastructure projects ay bilyon-bilyon na baka umabot pa ng trillion. Pano tayo makakasiguro ngayon na walang pork barrel dito sa 2026 NEP (This is even worse because the budgets for these anomalous infrastructure projects amount to billions—maybe even reaching a trillion. How can we be sure now that there’s no pork barrel in the 2026 NEP?)” he went on. 

During the hearing, Tulfo divulged that there were several flood control projects in different provinces that were proposed in the 2026 NEP that have identical amounts.

Among the NEP items that he mentioned were those in Antique, Iloilo, Apayao, Nueva Ecija, and Kalinga.  

Tulfo also revealed information that these budgetary items were supposedly inserted in the NEP, because the alleged irregularities in the bicameral conference committee on the national budget bill had become controversial in the 2025 General Appropriations Act.

“I’ve also received reports—because we are already investigating these flood control projects…dito po hahabulin sa NEP, hindi po sa bicameral conference committee (bicam) because nabulgar na po ‘yung bicam,” Tulfo said.  

The neophyte lawmaker emphasized that no less than President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. noted that most of these questionable items in the budget are believed to be “insertions.” 

“These are not allocations based on the need. These look like political insertions and mind you, hindi po ako ang nagsabi niyan. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself, in public statements, acknowledged that certain insertions in the 2026 NEP, especially for flood control were questionable,” Tulfo said. 

“These figures do not inspire confidence. Kung may mga kopya-kopya ang project costs at highly uneven distribution of flood control budgets, ang tanong po ng taong bayan, saan talaga napupunta po ang pera? Are we protecting the communities or are we protecting political interests?“ he further concluded.