Budget Sec refutes P100B budget insertion claims

Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman has refuted allegations by former Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co that she was involved in alleged P100 billion insertions in the 2025 national budget.

Co claimed that Pangandaman informed him that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. supposedly wanted P100 billion in budget insertions.

Pangandaman stated that all appropriations ordered by the President are already part of the National Expenditure Program (NEP), which is why it's called the President's Budget.

She asserted that the executive department's role in the budget process concludes once the NEP is submitted to Congress for deliberations.

Pangandaman emphasized that the bicameral conference committee is purely under the legislature's authority, and all their actions are transparent and lawful.

She explained that the executive branch spends six months crafting the NEP before submitting it to Congress for their deliberations.