BY BAGONG ALYANSANG MAKABAYAN – PANAY
FOR DECADES, the mantra of seeking economic growth, infrastructure, and investment as ends in themselves has not translated into higher incomes for workers and farmers, lower costs for consumers, stronger public services, and better living conditions. They have primarily created opportunities for big corporations, contractors, foreign investors, and political elites.
P7.2 trillion budget: Where is the money going?
In the first part of its critique, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Panay examined how the proposed P7.2-trillion 2027 budget affects food security, workers, education and health. Despite being P407 billion higher than the 2026 budget, the proposal cuts Social Services by 5.53% and Agriculture and Agrarian Reform by 11.68%, even as Filipino families continue to struggle with high food prices, low wages, unemployment, and access to education and healthcare.
Marcos’ infra plan does not serve people’s needs
Much of planned increased spending for 2027 is directed toward infrastructure. The Marcos administration continues to place infrastructure at the center of its economic strategy by prioritizing flagship projects, large-scale construction and public-private partnerships under Build Better More (BBM). But for BAYAN Panay, the BBM infrastructure plan is devoid of accountability and direct people’s participation.
Public scrutiny in Panay has exposed questionable and overpriced infrastructure spending. Budget for the controversial Ungka Flyover rose from P680 million to P975 million, while that of the long-unfinished Aganan Flyover increased from P802 million to P1.087 billion. The Jalaur River Multipurpose Project Stage II has seen its cost rise from P11.2 billion in 2019 to P25.7 billion in 2026, amid reported allegations of overpricing and violations of environmental laws and indigenous peoples’ rights.
Worse, the proposed 2027 budget will still allocate P110.6 billion for flood-control projects nationwide, including P6.16 billion for Western Visayas, according to computations by Kahublagan Kontra Kurapsyon (KKK). For communities frequently devastated by floods, the question remains: If billions are being spent on flood control, why do people continue to lose homes, crops, income and property to flooding?
The infrastructure budget will rely on a larger debt burden passed on to ordinary Filipinos. The government plans to borrow about P3.04 trillion in 2027, while national government debt already reached P19.07 trillion by June 2026. Meanwhile, debt servicing in the 2027 budget will reach P2.704 trillion, including P1.114 trillion in interest payments — more than the proposed P976-billion budget for DepEd. As long as the same economic policy is adopted by the government, the people will carry this debt for decades to enrich contractors, corporations and narrow political interests.
Privatizing social services is not development
The 2027 budget promotes public-private partnerships (PPPs) and other financing mechanisms for infrastructure and public services. But essential services such as water, electricity, transportation, health and education are public necessities that should not be treated as profitable markets.
In Iloilo, the Central and Terminal Public Markets have been redeveloped through a PPP with SM Prime under a 25-year lease arrangement, but after incurring losses due to lower stallholder occupancy, the privatized markets are expecting the local government to shell out funds for their operating expenses. In the energy sector, Razon-led Prime Infrastructure Capital is expanding its interests in power, water and other essential utilities, including major pumped-storage projects. In Western Visayas, PPPs are also being pursued for water supply, solid waste management and hospital services.
BAYAN Panay denounces the government policy of turning essential public services and facilities into opportunities for private investment and profit. When the national government reduces direct social spending while expanding private participation, people can end up paying twice — through taxes that finance government and through rent, user fees, fares, rates, tolls and other charges for services and facilities that should have remained accessible to all.
BAYAN Panay stands firm that public infrastructure must remain accountable to the public, and development must make essential services more accessible and affordable — not create new markets from people’s basic needs.
Security budget protects the elite, not the people
For ordinary people in Panay, security means food on the table, decent work, affordable electricity and water, accessible healthcare, safe communities and protection from disasters. Farmers losing crops to floods, workers without stable jobs, and families unable to afford medical care experience these as real threats to their lives and security.
But for the government, security in communities means militarization, surveillance and the harassment of the people and their organizations. Instead of addressing the real sources of insecurity, the government continues to pour resources into counterinsurgency programs. The NTF-ELCAC’s Barangay Development Program (BDP) is set to increase to P9.7 billion in 2027, even as social services and agricultural support are cut. In Panay alone, 45 barangays are slated to receive P5 million each under the BDP, amounting to P225 million — funds that will be distributed through military-dictated, corruption-riddled and discriminatory schemes instead of being directly accessed by communities in need.
A government that cannot guarantee food, livelihood, healthcare, education and protection from disasters cannot claim to be securing its people. Western Visayas need sustained support for agriculture and fisheries, irrigation, public markets, transportation, flood protection, water systems, hospitals and schools — investments that strengthen local livelihoods and reduce people’s burdens.
Marcos’ secret funds evade accountability
To top it all off, the proposed 2027 budget allocates P10.773 billion for confidential and intelligence funds (CIF) — P4.368 billion in confidential funds and Php6.405 billion in intelligence funds. While this is 8.8% lower than the 2026 allocation, these funds remain exempted from public disclosure and oversight.
More than four billion pesos in CIF will be lodged once again in the Office of the President. Double standards in probing secret funds is evident as the use and liquidation of confidential funds by the Office of the Vice President are being scrutinized in the ongoing impeachment trial of Sara Duterte. While recent proceedings have correctly raised questions about the handling and documentation of OVP and DepEd confidential funds worth P612.5 million, the president’s annual CIF remains unchecked.
At a time when social services are being cut and families are struggling with the cost of living, Marcos Jr. must explain why billions of pesos should remain beyond ordinary public scrutiny.
We demand a people’s budget
The proposed P7.2-trillion budget provides security for the country’s elites by funding corruption-prone projects and allocations and repressing the people’s opposition through militarized services and bloated defense spending. It is far from being a people’s budget that prioritizes food security, decent wages, quality public education and healthcare, social welfare, and environmental protection. This penultimate budget of the Marcos Jr. regime is not responsive to calls for strengthening Filipino agriculture and industries and creating productive jobs.
BAYAN Panay calls on the people to scrutinize the proposed budget and insist that public funds must go to the needs of ordinary Filipinos — not the interests of big corporations, contractors and political dynasties. We demand a budget that puts people over profit, public welfare over private gain, and genuine land reform and national industrialization over elite and foreign interests. The people’s money must build a self-reliant and just economy.
This is the second of BAYAN Panay’s two-part critique of the 2027 National Expenditure Program. (bayanpanay2014@gmail.com)/PN
