Ex-senator pushes tougher penalties for budget abuse

Former Senate President Franklin M. Drilon on Tuesday called for stiffer penalties and sweeping reforms to address what he described as systemic abuse in the use of the national budget, saying lawmakers who misuse public funds should be punished more severely than ordinary bureaucrats.

Speaking on Headstart, Drilon said the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee should translate its investigation into concrete policy and legislative recommendations, particularly in response to alleged irregularities involving unprogrammed appropriations and flood control projects.

Drilon said one key reform would be the imposition of harsher punishment for elected officials found guilty of corruption. “I would strongly suggest that the maximum penalty should be imposed on any legislator who is found to have committed such anomalies,” he said.

“In other words, you impose the maximum penalty so that it is a policy pronouncement that indeed, those who violated public trust and their mandate should be more liable or should be punished more than the ordinary bureaucrat,” Drilon stressed.

He also proposed prohibiting the inclusion of unprogrammed appropriations in the national budget, which he said has been a major source of abuse. “I would propose that Blue Ribbon recommend legislation which would prohibit the inclusion of unprogrammed allocation in the budget, because this is the subject of the abuse,” he said.

“All of these things that we see today is because the congressmen and the senators included the provision on program appropriation, and what had happened was that this was taken advantage of to fund the mess in the flood control,” Drilon stressed.

Even without new legislation, Drilon said the President could immediately act by withholding the release of unprogrammed funds until there is an actual surplus in the overall national budget. “That he can announce as a matter of policy, because in the 2026 General Appropriations Act, there are still unprogrammed appropriations,” he said.

Drilon also pointed to the scale of ongoing investigations, citing reports that the Department of Justice is probing 421 flood control projects, which he described as a “gargantuan” task.

To address the volume of cases, he said the Office of the Ombudsman should be allowed to enlist additional legal support. “I would strongly suggest that the Blue Ribbon Report include a recommendation that the Ombudsman be authorized to hire private lawyers for this particular, for such cases, as may be appropriate,” the former justice secretary said.

Drilon also called for clarifying the Ombudsman’s authority over legislators and for the passage of an anti-political dynasty law.

“The exemption from prosecution should be limited only to speeches delivered in the chambers, not to other matters,” he said, warning that a broader interpretation could create the perception that legislators are above the law.

“The Ombudsman should have jurisdiction over legislators, because the exemption from prosecution should be limited only to speeches delivered in the chambers, not to other matters. Otherwise, it can be interpreted that the legislators are above the law. So I would suggest that legislation be passed among those lines,” Drilon said.