PCIJ: From 2023 to 2025, Marcos kin received highest amount of ‘allocable funds,’ a new form of pork barrel

CHEERS TO Guinevere Latoza of Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) for her in-depth report published on November 29, describing the nature of “allocable funds” and discussing the issues of transparency involved in the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in the past years.

The hearings raised the use of a new budgetary term – “allocable funds” – in referring to leftover funds after a project has used up the budget or all mandatory expenses are covered. 

The term, however, has taken on a new meaning. 

DPWH uses the term “allocables” to refer to its “discretionary funds” which are assigned to congressional districts.  In effect, such funds are the same as the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), also known as “pork barrel” – which has been declared as unconstitutional. Currently, the president is allowed to set the total amount, leaving it to Congress to determine how it is spent and itemized. Once set, these funds have to be approved by Congress before the items can be included in the National Expenditures Program (NEP).

During the  September 8 hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, former DPWH undersecretary Catalina Cabral disclosed that the allocable funds are based on a “parametric formula” that then DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan ordered her to make. Apparently, only a few people from the department understand the said formula. 

Latoza’s report presented a DPWH document detailing the unexplained formula, namely the Baselined, Balanced and Managed Parametric Formula or the BBM Formula. This calculation has been used by the agency since fiscal year 2023, the first year that the Marcos administration enacted a national budget. 

Findings from PCIJ’s report pointed out the following:

• A total of PHP1.2 Trillion of allocable funds were distributed from 2023 to 2025, of which the highest shares were given to the President’s son, Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos, and cousin Leyte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez. Each of their districts received PHP15.8 billion and PHP14.4 billion respectively. 
• Aside from allocables, ‘non-allocables’ are DPWH projects that are supposedly developed based on an infrastructure masterplan to help in poverty reduction, disaster preparedness, and service provision. PCIJ interviewed testimonies from the Lower House who revealed that the money for non-allocables is used as free-for-all pork allocations, as Lawmakers and even executive officials are allowed to insert projects for contractors who, in turn, pay kickbacks to these officials.  
• The 2026 national budget still has allocables, but these are only intended for other projects that are not flood control-related.  

Reports in recent months featured personalities and faces involved in the flood-control mess. But these failed to present the system of corruption involved in the flood control. 

PCIJ’s report exposed the pork barrel system involved in the flood control projects. The report reconstructed the system and called for a complete list of DPWH project proponents from the past three years, emphasizing that the list “could be the key” to exposing the officials involved in the misuse of the DPWH’s budget.