House of Representatives members aren't short on allocations and incentives during the annual budget process.

This was the main takeaway from Batangas 1st district Rep. Leandro Legarda Leviste's Zoom interview with reporters Friday, Dec. 26, wherein he shared evidence that congressmen like him were given allocations beyond the ₱401.3 billion “allocable” budget for Department of Public of Work Highway (DPWH) projects listed on documents from the late undersecretary Catalina Cabral.

Simply put, allocables are the millions in annual earmarked amounts that a district congressman may allocate.

During the interview, Leviste shared a screenshot of a message that was sent on June 10 during the preparation of the national expenditure program (NEP) to the chiefs of staff of congressmen. The chiefs were told, "Please be reminded of the submission of hard and soft projects for FY 2026."

These included “150M (million) Infra for District Rep (representative)”, “160M Infra for Party List Rep”, and “30M soft for District and PL Rep.”

Leviste added that the submissions appeared in the NEP--the basis of General Appropriations Bill (GAB) or proposed national budget--before the period for congressional amendments.

In light of this, the 32-year-old solon took issue with the DPWH and Congress' denials that insertions are made to the DPWH budget.

“Given the public’s call for transparency, I ask the DPWH and Congress to retract the statements denying that we insert projects in the DPWH NEP, and to disclose the proponents of projects in the NEP."

Leviste said that during the House Committee on Appropriations hearing last Sept. 17, the DPWH was asked if there were projects nominated by politicians in the 2026 DPWH NEP. He said the answer was, “According to our staff, wala po silang alam na meron ganoong mga proyekto (there are no such projects).”

During the plenary deliberations last Sept. 30, the DPWH was asked if there were congressional insertions in the 2026 DPWH NEP, and the response was: “Lahat ng mga project natin, bago man, or luma na mga proyekto, galing ito sa mga district offices, and then regional offices...Hindi ito galing sa mga congressman, kung hindi ito galing sa district office at mga regional offices ng DPWH.”

(All of our projects, whether new or old, come from the district offices and then the regional offices. These do not come from the congressmen, but rather from the district offices and the regional offices of the DPWH.)

In the same plenary discussion, the DPWH was asked if it had a system of tracking the proponents of projects, and if this could be published for transparency. The response, again in the negative was: “Definitely, hindi alam ng DPWH dahil after NEP na ho [ang congressional insertions] (Definitely, the DPWH doesn't know because congressional insertions occur after the NEP)."

"Senator [Panfilo "Ping"] Lacson revealed that DPWH offered Senate President [Vicente "Tito"] Sotto [III] an allocation of ₱500M in the NEP, and I can confirm that in Congress we formally submit our ₱150M allocations, which were adopted in the 2026 NEP," Leviste said.

"Given this, the DPWH should reveal what are the ₱150M or more of projects proposed by every congressman and any other proponent,” the appropriations panel vice chairman said. added.

Leviste also shared a picture of a piece of paper shown to him by a staff of the Committee on Appropriations chairperson enumerating the following details: 21M DOH MAIP, 25M DOLE TUPAD/GIP, 25M DSWD AICS, 30M DA FMR, 25M OTHERS, and 25M DPWH. This totaled to ₱151 million.

Among the programs mentioned include the Medical Assistance to Indigent Patients, Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers/ Government Internship Program, Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation, and farm-to-market roads.

Leviste said the staff called to meet secretly, showed the document to him, as a vice chairman, and said “This is your incentive” a week before the budget vote.

Leviste also shared another piece of paper purportedly shown to another congressman, enumerating budgets totaling ₱250 million.

He stressed that his point was, first, not necessarily to question the allocations, but to ask that all the allocations at least be published; and second, to ask why this “incentive” was being given, secretly, seemingly for him to vote in favor of the 2026 budget.

While the P6.793-trillion GAB for 2026 was handily passed on third and final reading last Oct. 13, the Batangas lawmaker ended up as the lone member of the House majority bloc to vote against it.

“If public funds are being used as so-called 'incentives' for congressmen before voting on the 2026 budget, the public should at least know the ‘allocables’ or ‘incentives’ each congressman gets whether from DPWH, DOH, DSWD, DOLE, DA, NIA, DepEd, or any other government agency," Leviste noted.

"The public deserves to know this before Congress ratifies the 2026 budget next week,” he further said.

The House of Representatives and Senate are set to separately ratify the P6.793-trillion GAB--the biggest in the country’s history--on Monday, Dec. 29. The budget measure will then be transmitted to Malacañang for President Marcos signature on the same day.