House Deputy Minority Leader ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio exposed on Tuesday, Dec. 16 what he described as the Senate's alleged ₱17.9-billion "LGU pork".

In a statement, Tinio criticized the Senate version of the 2026 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for purportedly having massive cuts to benefits for rank-and-file government employees, which was then realigned to "discretionary pork barrel funds for Local Government Units (LGUs)".

"It is ironic that while some Senators righteously denounce the patronage-based medical assistance fund bloated by the House, their own version of the budget enables LGU officials to do the same with medical assistance, ayuda, and the like," Tinio said, referring the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) Program.

Tinio revealed that the Senate slashed the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF) by a staggering ₱55 billion. This reduced it to just ₱56.5 billion from the ₱111.5 billion proposed by Malacañang in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) and carried over unchanged in the House version of the GAB.

While a portion of this reduction represents a transfer of subsistence allowances to specific agencies, Tinio pointed out that billions were genuinely cut from the Performance-Based Bonus (PBB), staffing modifications, and funds for filling unfilled positions.

Simultaneously, the Senate hiked the Allocations to Local Government Units (ALGU), and almost doubled the Local Government Support Fund (LGSF) from ₱20.2 billion to ₱38.1 billion--a ₱17.9-billion uptick.

Tinio made these revelation even as House of Representatives and Senate contingents to the Bicameral Conference Committee race to consolidate the two versions of the P6.793-trillion GAB before Dec.22, the final session date of the year.

This massive increase is driven by a ₱7.6-billion injection into the highly discretionary Financial Assistance to LGUs (FALGU), bringing its total to ₱16.7 billion. Tinio says this effectively creates a massive slush fund for local patronage under the guise of aid.

Furthermore, the Senate hiked the Growth Equity Fund by ₱10.3 billion to reach ₱11.3 billion.

Despite the Senate's 'anti-pork' posturing, these additions retain broad menus for infrastructure and financial handouts that serve political interests rather than national development planning, the Makabayan solon said.

He noted that in the Senate's "LGU pork", "hard pork" remains fully entrenched through the retention of local roads, bridges, and multi-purpose buildings on the menu, and the introduction of a new loophole for "Flagship Infrastructure Projects" that allows for unlimited large-scale construction in partnership with national government agencies.

Meanwhile, "soft pork" was not only preserved but expanded, Tinio said. The Senate broadened the menu available to LGUs for direct handouts or "ayuda" to explicitly cover medical, funeral, transportation, food, and educational assistance, and merely rebranded "ambulances" as "mobile medical vehicles".

"The Senate slashed funding for the benefits of teachers, health workers, and government employees, only to funnel those cuts into a massive slush fund for local patronage...This is classic bureaucrat capitalism—robbing the workers to feed the political machinery of local dynasties," he said.

The bicam approved over the weekend the P51.645-billion allocation for the controversial MAIFIP, which utilizes guarantee letters from politicians. This is connected to the Marcos administration's zero balance billing program for indigent patients.

Palawan 2nd district Rep. Jose Alvarez, a member of the House contingent to the bicam, explained earlier that MAIFIP funds go straight to hospitals as payment for treatment provided. 

“Walang funding dito na dumadaan sa kamay ng politician. Diretso ito from the DOH (Department of Health) regional office, diretso binabayad ito sa mga hospitals when the bills are forwarded to them," Alvarez said.

(There is no funding here that passes through the hands of politicians. This goes directly from the DOH regional office, and it is directly paid to the hospitals when the bills are forwarded to them.)

For Tinio, all type of pork or discretionary funds must be ditched from the GAB, regardless of the politicians who dispense them.

The teacher-lawmaker warned that the cuts to the MPBF will have devastating effects on the government workforce, particularly in the education and health sectors which are already suffering from chronic shortages.

"By slashing ₱15.8 billion from Staffing Modifications and ₱2 billion from the fund for Filling Unfilled Positions, the Senate is effectively freezing the regularization of thousands of contractual workers. In our State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) alone, the majority of faculty are trapped in Job Order (JO) and Contract of Service (COS) schemes with no employer-employee relationship. This budget denies them the dignity of security of tenure," he explained.

He further noted that the ₱13.5-billion cut to the PBB pool demoralizes a workforce already struggling with low pay and high inflation.

"We demand the immediate restoration of the MPBF. We call on the Bicameral Conference Committee to junk the Senate’s LGU pork and restore these funds to where they belong and as originally proposed in the NEP: the salaries and benefits of our workers. We must fund the regularization of contractuals, fill vacant plantilla positions in our schools and hospitals, and finally grant the long-overdue increase in the Personnel Economic Relief Allowance (PERA)," Tinio concluded.