THE RECENT historic Supreme Court decision striking down the 2024 and 2025 General Appropriations Acts (GAAs) as unconstitutional has ripped the mask off the state’s most notorious engine of rights violations: the NTF-ELCAC. Its Barangay Development Program (BDP) budget was doubled and tripled because of Malacañang-sanctioned releases from unprogrammed appropriations.
For 2024, the programmed appropriations for the NTF-ELCAC BDP stood at only P2.16 billion. But through clandestine congressional manipulation at the Bicam level, the BDP aggressively fought its way into unprogrammed appropriations. This gave room for Marcos Jr. to triple the funding for NTF-ELCAC without going through Congress. From the programmed baseline of P2.16 billion, it earned an unprogrammed insertion of P4.32 billion during budget implementation, inflating its total budget to PHP6.48 billion.
The government employed a similar tactic in 2025. Using unprogrammed appropriations, Malacañang bloated the BDP budget to twice the amount approved by Congress and signed by Marcos Jr. himself: from a programmed baseline of PHP1.95 billion to a total of PHP3.9 billion.
This staggering injection of unprogrammed funds in both years is precisely the kind of executive-legislative budget laundering that the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional—a system where funds are conjured out of thin air outside the regular, scrutinized budget process.
Rushed Releases, Guaranteed Failure
Adding insult to injury, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) documents reveal that the P4.32 billion in unprogrammed funds was unleashed starting November 25, 2024, or exactly a month before Christmas Day. In 2025, DBM approved the release of P1.95 billion in unprogrammed appropriations on December 22, 2025!
Pumping billions of pesos into local agencies with barely a month left in the fiscal year is a mockery of governance. Worse, it is a year-end dumping of public funds ripe for corruption and pre-election patronage, considering that midterm polls were held in 2025.
Injecting billions more into BDP through unprogrammed funds just before the end of fiscal years 2024 and 2025 is a waste of people’s taxes, considering that projects from 2021 cannot even see the light of day years later. In Iloilo Province, COA flagged 13 farm-to-market roads that were funded in 2021 yet remain unstarted as of 2025; these “ghost” roads were ridiculously tagged as “fully operational”.
In 2024, Iloilo Province received PHP47.5 million in BDP funds. The following year, it was allocated an additional PHP50 million, while Antique got PHP22.5 million and Capiz got PHP57.5 million. These are part of the desperate efforts of NTF-ELCAC to justify its existence: it establishes patronage networks with local governments through pork-barrel projects.
Our demands
The High Tribunal’s ruling—confirming that Congress and Malacañang illegally bloated budgets with billions in unprogrammed appropriations—vindicates what human rights advocates have long asserted: the Barangay Development Program (BDP) has been fueled by dark, backdoor insertions designed to evade public accountability.
We assert that the Supreme Court decision be implemented immediately. Every single peso of the NTF-ELCAC BDP funds—unconstitutionally funded through the 2024 and 2025 budget laws and wrongfully padded through unprogrammed appropriations—must be pulled back and redirected toward genuine public health, education, and social welfare programs.
Above all, the NTF-ELCAC must be defunded and permanently dismantled for being an institution of red-tagging, harassment, and state-sanctioned impunity. We reject the task force’s militarized programs that not only fail to deliver but are weaponized to violate civil liberties; we demand basic social services and rights-based governance for communities! – KARAPATAN PANAY <panaykarapatan@gmail.com>
