Zaldy Co: Marcos sought guaranteed funding for P100 billion in budget insertions

President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. allegedly insisted that his P100 billion insertions under the 2025 national budget be placed under programmed appropriations that have guaranteed funding, former Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co said on Wednesday.

He also alleged that then Senate President Francis Escudero wanted a higher P200 billion allocation under the 2025 national budget and that the latter succeeded in making the insertions under programmed and unprogrammed allocations.

Co, a former chair of the House appropriations committee, made the allegation as he posted a copy of a letter that he sent Marcos in February 2025 on his social media accounts.

GMA News Online has reached out to Marcos and Escudero for comment and will publish their replies once available.

Co – who is now facing charges over his alleged links to irregularities in some flood control projects – said he wrote the President to “set the record straight” amid accusations that the House of Representatives made a “mess” of the 2025 national budget.

“In late November, I told Undersecretary Adrian Bersamin, Sec. Mina Pangandaman and Usec. Jojo Cadiz to advise Your Excellency that the P100 billion insertion that the OP (Office of the President) requested must be split into programmed and unprogrammed as it will have severe backlash on the education sector,” the resigned lawmaker said in his seven-page letter to the President.

Co added: “But Sec. Mina said Your Excellency’s instruction was ‘to proceed’ and that we must follow. So we did.”

Pangadaman was then Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary while Bersamin, nephew of then Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, was undersecretary of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO). On the other hand, Cadiz is Justice Undersecretary.

Pangandaman and Bersamin were earlier tagged by Co as having relayed Marcos’ supposed instruction to insert P100 billion in the 2025 national budget through the bicameral conference committee, while Cadiz supposedly said there was a new order to insert another P50 billion.

In his letter to the President, Co then said he did not encounter this problem with then Senator Sonny Angara during the latter’s term as Senate finance chairperson during the 2023 and 2024 bicam deliberations.

Co quoted Angara as saying that “all OP insertions are typically included in unprogrammed appropriations.”

Unlike programmed funds which have guaranteed funding, unprogrammed appropriations are budget items that would only be funded when there are excess revenue collections or other funding sources provided by loans or special laws. 

Co explained that in the OP’s P100 billion allocations for 2023, P75 billion was placed under unprogrammed appropriations.

The P25 billion for Social Amelioration Programs, as per Marcos’ instruction to then Speaker Martin Romualdez during a 2022 foreign trip, was placed under programmed appropriations.

“In 2024, however, since the majority of Your Excellency’s Cabinet preferred programmed funds, P40 billion of OP’s P100 billion allocation was placed in programmed appropriations, while the remaining P60 billion was retained under unprogrammed,” Co said.  

“I am stating this to debunk Sen. Sonny’s alleged report to Your Excellency which made it appear that Speaker Martin and I tinkered with your allocations. There was nothing for us to get as most of OP's allocations were unprogrammed and unfunded during that time,” he added.

P200 billion allocation

In the same letter, Co also alleged that Escudero sought a P200 billion allocation under the 2025 national budget and that he succeeded in the insertions – P150 billion under programmed funds and P50 billion under unprogrammed appropriations.

“In 2023, the Senate was entitled to P150 billion in programmed funds for various agencies. In 2024, this increased to P165 billion. But for the 2025 budget, SP Chiz insisted on having P150 billion in programmed funds, of which P145 billion was directly channeled to DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) versus the typical P100 billion DPWH allocations in previous years, and P50 billion to other agencies,” the former Ako Bicol solon said.

Co said he warned Escudero that the Senate’s very large DPWH allocation would exceed education, “but he doesn’t want to give way.”

“He threatened to delay budget deliberations until March 2025, which would have resulted in a reenacted budget. I asked Sec. Mina to relay SP Chiz’s threat to Malacanang and Your Excellency’s response, per Sec. Mina, - ‘Don’t ever think about it.’ Thus, the House was left with no choice but to concede,” Co said.

He said the DPWH’s allocation exceeded that of education, a direct violation of the 1987 Constitution’s mandate to prioritize education in the national budget.

“This is not just a procedural issue; it has real, painful consequences. During the 2023-2024 budget deliberations, then Sen. Sonny and I never encountered the same problems as the 2025 budget because we only prioritized what was needed. Education remained on top,” Co said.

It may be recalled that Co is facing charges of malversation of public funds and two counts of graft charges over a substandard P289 million road dike project in Oriental Mindoro. The Sandigbayan has issued a warrant for his arrest.

Co has denied any wrongdoing and said he never received kickbacks from government infrastructure projects.

In the past weeks, the former Ako Bicol solon has released several videos accusing Marcos and his allies of orchestrating the P100 billion insertion in the 2025 national budget. He also alleged that the President and his allies received billions of pesos in kickbacks from government projects.

The President has refused to dignify or respond to Co’s allegations and dared him to come home to prove his claims while facing accountability for the charges lodged against him.

On Wednesday afternoon — hours before Co posted his February 2025 letter to Marcos — the President bared an alleged attempt to blackmail him into not facilitating the cancellation of Co’s passport so that Co would stop with his accusations. — JMA, GMA Integrated News