Marcos knew, flagged 2025 budget insertions, says Tiangco

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. knew about budget insertions in last year’s national spending plan, which prompted him to withhold the funds that the executive branch had flagged as questionable, Navotas Representative Tobias “Toby” Tiangco said on Tuesday.

In an interview on Super Radyo DZBB, Tiangco, however, conceded that the President could have taken further steps to block the release of funds that were later implicated in the alleged kickback scheme besetting his administration.

“Alam niya ’yung mga (He knew of the) insertions. And as of July, the release of P80 billion in funding under the national budget is on hold because these are questionable projects,” Tiangco said.

He was referring to the fund insertions that were flagged by the executive branch following the release of the enrolled bill of the 2025 national budget, following deliberations by the bicameral conference committee.

“This is not in defense of the President, but I have to say what really happened,” he added.

Tiangco said Marcos would later reprimand his cousin after receiving reports that then-Speaker Romualdez and then House appropriations chair Zaldy Co were cornering funding for themselves, supposedly depriving the administration’s foreign-assisted flagship projects of necessary counterpart financing.

According to Tiangco, Marcos earlier scolded then Speaker and Leyte Representative Martin Romualdez in late 2024 during a meeting where Tiangco was present.

The matter was brought to the President’s attention by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Tiangco said.

The lawmaker said the President got his chance to confront Romualdez during a family lunch in Malacañang on November 24 last year.

“It was a Sunday. That JICA report was what angered him—why they were even touching the funds for that,” he said.

He declined to speculate on why it took Marcos months before acting on the alleged insertions in the 2025 General Appropriations Act.

“Why the President did not act immediately, I don’t know. I cannot defend him because I don’t know, and that is also my frustration,” he said.

GMA News Online has reached out to Malacañang for comment and will publish their response once it is made available.

Asked how his account aligns with Marcos’ earlier remark that there is still not enough evidence to charge Romualdez over the alleged flood control kickback scheme, Tiangco said knowing about irregularities is different from having evidence that can stand in court.

“I will speculate, but I don’t know. Maybe sometimes we hear or know that a person is getting money. But for that person to be charged, and for there to be admissible evidence in court showing he received money—that might be what the President is waiting for,” he said.

“I’m just guessing,” the Navotas lawmaker added.

Tiangco said Marcos must eventually hold Romualdez accountable or risk public backlash over perceptions that he is protecting him.

“The President is now in a position where he needs to prove something. People are asking a valid question: Why didn’t he act? He needs to show he is willing to pursue charges against Martin Romualdez,” Tiangco said.

“Because if he doesn’t, people will think the reason he did nothing is because he is involved. And if I feel that Romualdez will be protected or treated with kid gloves, I would separate from the President politically,” he added.

The Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) earlier recommended to the Ombudsman the filing of plunder, graft, and bribery charges against Romualdez and resigned Ako Bicol Representative Zaldy Co over around P100 billion worth of contracts allegedly secured by companies linked to Co from 2016 to 2025.

The ICI later clarified that its recommendation does not constitute a finding of guilt or determination of criminal liability against Romualdez.

The Leyte lawmaker has denied the allegations, saying his conscience is clear.—MCG, GMA Integrated News