Former Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co detailed a series of major budget reductions amounting to ₱109.592 billion that were allegedly pursued by then-Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero during the 2025 Bicameral Conference Committee hearings.

The budget cuts--which hurt key sectors--were mentioned in Co's letter to President Marcos in February 2025. The ex-Committee on Appropriations chairman recently shared a copy of the seven-page letter on his Facebook.

Co first referenced the letter in one of his growing number of video exposés on he subject of budget insertions. In it, he laid out what he described as Escudero's alleged “insistence” on redirecting funds toward its preferred allocations—including a push for a P200-billion share for the Senate.

In particular, Co alleged that Escudero was behind the removal of the subsidy that kept the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth)--the national health insurer--afloat.

“It was also upon SP Chiz’s suggestion that the P74-billion subsidy for PhilHealth was scrapped,” he wrote to Marcos

Co later claimed that Escudero’s proposed realignments were finalized at ₱150 billion, with an alleged threat of a reenacted budget for 2025 if the House did not agree with the Senate during the bicam hearings.

He also tagged Escudero as the one who led the move to slash P10 billion from the Department of Education’s (DepEd) computerization program. “Due to DepEd’s low utilization rate and in a desire to increase the sources of funds during the bicam, SP Chiz cut P10-billion from the agency’s computerization program,” Co said.

He added that while the House wanted the amount shifted to school buildings, Escudero “insisted on puting everything in DPWH". This was contrary to an earlier agreement that DepEd funds would stay within DepEd projects.

And the budget cuts didn't stop there, according to Co. “This was followed by another P1.692-billion budget reduction for new teaching positions which curtailed government’s ability to hire new teachers,” he told the President.

He warned that the agency “can only hire teachers for the first three months of the year and would have to scramble for funds to fill up 20,000 teaching posts".

The agriculture sector also wasn't spared, as per Co. “For the Department of Agriculture (DA), it was also SP Chiz who moved to slash the P10-billion budget intended for the fertilizer voucher project under DA’s Rice Program."

In this regard, the ex-appropriations panel chief branded accusations that it was the House that slashed DA’s budget “illogical and totally absurd".

Co said the pattern of reductions continued as the Senate sought to carve out a P200-billion share for its own priorities.

“Since the Senate President really wanted a P200-billion share for the Senate, he moved to his next target: he slashed P13.9 billion or half of the P27.8 billion infrastructure funding for the administration’s flagship projects,” he said.

Co said he alerted then-Department of Public Works and Highways DPHW) secretary Manny Bonoan regarding this reduction. He warned that it included funds for the repair of key roads linking Batangas and Quezon.

“If unrepaired, these roads will continue to cause severe traffic, massive inconvenience to commuters and motorists, and billions in revenue losses due to disruptions in trade and commerce,” Co said.

Co emphasized in his letter that these decisions were not initiated by the lower chamber, as he underscored the need to “provide clarity to a lot of baseless accusations being thrown against the House of Representatives".

The current national budget is worth P6.326 trillion, the biggest in the country’s history.