MANILA, Philippines — Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Kim Robert de Leon told lawmakers that the proposed ₱7.2-trillion national budget for 2027 contains no “leadership fund,” as the House began scrutinizing the spending plan amid renewed questions over alleged congressional project allocations and the government’s controversial flood-control projects.
De Leon made the assurance on Monday, August 17, during deliberations on the proposed 2027 budget after Caloocan City 2nd District Rep. Edgar Erice questioned whether the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) projects had undergone sufficient review following the flood-control controversy.
The DBM chief said the agency was not aware of any allocation resembling the so-called leadership fund and stressed that the department evaluates the budget proposals submitted by government agencies. He added that the DPWH projects included in the 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP) are backed by complete documentation.
The assurance comes just days after former DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan testified in a Sandiganbayan case that senators had received at least ₱500 million each under what he described as a “leadership fund” connected to the 2025 DPWH budget.
According to Bonoan’s testimony, the alleged arrangement was created in 2024 as an ad hoc mechanism for accommodating senators’ priority infrastructure projects. He said the minimum allocation was ₱500 million per senator, while chairpersons of major Senate committees could receive as much as ₱1 billion. Bonoan also claimed that the total allocation for senators reached about ₱24 billion.
Bonoan said the arrangement emerged after substantial cuts to DPWH’s core programs and was intended to ensure that projects considered priorities by senators could still obtain funding. He described the allocations as part of the department’s budget rather than a formally established congressional fund.
However, the testimony has been disputed.
Former Senate President Miguel Zubiri denied that he managed or controlled such a fund. Zubiri said he never handled lists of infrastructure requests from senators and maintained that budget amendments were supposed to pass through the Senate finance process.
The controversy has nevertheless intensified scrutiny of how infrastructure projects enter the national budget—particularly whether projects are identified through regular government planning or inserted to accommodate the priorities of individual lawmakers.
That concern is significant because the 2027 national budget is worth ₱7.2 trillion, about ₱407 billion or 6% higher than the ₱6.793-trillion budget for 2026. The proposed amount is equivalent to roughly 21.7% of the country’s GDP.
The DBM has repeatedly said that the 2027 budget is being prepared under tighter standards, with agencies expected to demonstrate implementation readiness, absorptive capacity and complete documentation before projects are considered for funding. The official 2027 Budget Call also emphasizes fiscal discipline, value for money, monitoring and stronger participation by regional development councils and local governments.
The Palace has likewise said that there is no “leadership fund” in the proposed 2027 DPWH budget. Presidential Communications officials said projects are supposed to be based on local and regional needs, with appropriate documentation and, when necessary, clearance from regional development councils.
Senate Finance Committee Chair JV Ejercito has separately vowed that no leadership fund will be allowed during the 2027 budget process. Senator Panfilo Lacson has also pushed for the abolition of such arrangements, describing the alleged system as a way of giving lawmakers discretionary influence over infrastructure allocations.
The issue is particularly sensitive because the government is still dealing with the political and institutional fallout from the massive flood-control controversy. Lawmakers and investigators have been examining alleged project insertions, questionable infrastructure allocations and the mechanisms through which projects were incorporated into previous national budgets.
The 2027 budget process therefore faces a bigger test than simply determining how much money each department receives.
It is now also a test of whether the government can demonstrate that every major infrastructure allocation has a clear public purpose, supporting documents and a traceable route through the budget process—without hidden discretionary pools for political priorities.
For DBM, the claim is straightforward: there is no leadership fund in the proposed 2027 budget.
But with lawmakers now examining the details of a ₱7.2-trillion spending plan, the more consequential question may be whether the final budget that emerges from Congress will preserve that promise.
And that is where the next stage of the budget battle could become even more closely watched.
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