BICAM ROUND 2: IMPASSE ON PORK FORCES A DRAW
For Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN), the second round of the bicameral conference committee (bicam) deliberations on the 2026 national budget has again exposed the real battle behind closed doors: the fight to preserve billions in pork barrel funds.
The current impasse stems from the House contingent’s insistence on overriding the Senate’s ₱54-billion reduction in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) budget and restoring the original, bloated House version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB). This stubborn position has nothing to do with development needs or public welfare. It is fundamentally about pork.
DPWH has long been the preferred vehicle for pork barrel allocations because of its project-based nature, weak transparency, and well-documented vulnerability to overpricing, ghost projects, and kickbacks. A lower DPWH budget means fewer discretionary projects to distribute and, ultimately, lower kickbacks for those who profit from the system. This explains why certain House leaders, in connivance with the Executive, are willing to stall the bicam proceedings rather than accept even a modest reduction proposed by the Senate.
What we are seeing is not a principled disagreement between two chambers of Congress but a tug-of-war over who controls the pork and how much can be milked from the public coffers. While ordinary Filipinos struggle with rising prices, inadequate social services, and the impacts of climate-related disasters, lawmakers are locked in a battle to protect funds that fuel corruption and patronage politics.
BAYAN stresses that the failure to resolve this issue decisively reinforces public suspicion that the budget process has been hijacked by narrow, self-serving interests. The bicameral conference committee is supposed to reconcile differences in the name of the people, not to serve as a bargaining table for pork barrel allocations.
We reiterate our call for full transparency in the bicam process, including the immediate public disclosure of all amendments, insertions, and project lists by district, party-list, and senator. The people have the right to know where their taxes are going and who stands to benefit from these budgetary maneuvers.
Unless Congress decisively breaks from the pork barrel system, starting with substantial cuts to corruption-prone DPWH allocations, every “draw” in the bicam will continue to be a loss for the Filipino people.
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