Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero said on Thursday, October 23 that the people’s  opinion on infrastructure projects is necessary as they know best the specific programs that should be implemented in their respective areas.

Escudero said this should be the guiding principle in the crafting of the  2026 General Appropriations Act and beyond, especially in proposing infrastructure projects, and their inclusion in the national budget.

“With so many problems in government infrastructure projects coming out, including substandard and ghost flood control projects, we really need to come up with a reasonable solution to save public funds from corruption,” he said.

Most of the time, Escudero said the abuses committed in regard to infrastructure projects are the result of the arbitrary moves of legislators.

And this is done in connivance with officials in the Executive branch, to introduce items that never passed scrutiny at any point of the budget process.

“This is the very issue being raised with regard to insertions in the budget”, said Escudero.

One solution that can address this, he said, is by ensuring that all infrastructure projects to have prior endorsement of the Regional Development Council, either the Provincial Development Council or the City/Municipal Development Council and their respective Sanggunian before these are included in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the President to Congress.

This would eventually put a stop to ghost projects or infrastructure projects that came out of nowhere and were included in the national budget, he said.

An examination of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) before 2025, alongside the examinations conducted by the Commission on Audit, would reveal the presence of ghost projects and other anomalies in the implementation of infrastructure projects, Escudero pointed out.

Escudero’s suggestion is included in the proposed Grassroots Infrastructure Planning and Budgeting bill which he filed.

Under the bill, prior endorsement of the RDCs and/or the local governing bodies is a requisite or condition sine qua non (absolutely indispensable) for the inclusion of any infrastructure project in the GAA and for the subsequent release of any allotment for its implementation.

“Without the endorsement or approval of the RDC, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) won’t be required to release funds for any project,” he said.