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Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III answers questions during a press conference, October 6, 2025.  Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News

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SENATE LEADERSHIP- SOTTO

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/176612857567320251006-senate-president-tito-sotto-MT12.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III answers questions during a press conference, October 6, 2025.  Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News</span></span></span></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><p>MANILA <strong>(UPDATED) </strong>— Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Friday rejected claims that senators hid discretionary &quot;pork barrel&quot; in the proposed 2026 national budget through funds for government workers and indigent patients. </p><p>Sotto said the funds would be &quot;pork barrel&quot; if lawmakers could get their hands on the money through schemes like kickbacks.</p><p>&quot;Paano mo makakakuha ng kickback sa mga mutual benefits ng uniformed personnel?” Sotto said. </p><p>(How would you get kickbacks from the benefits of uniformed personnel?)</p><p>The Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that &quot;pork barrel&quot; funds that allowed lawmakers to direct how money is spent after the national budget has already been passed is unconstitutional.</p><p>Sotto said the budget provisions were uploaded on the Senate website </p><p>“Kaya para magsalita ka ng gano&#x27;n, aba’y hindi ka nakakaintindi or hindi ka nagbabasa,&quot; he also said. </p><p>(So for someone to make that allegation, it suggests they don&#x27;t understand or haven&#x27;t read up)</p><p>Sotto cited the situation in public hospitals brimming with patients in justifying the controversial <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/12/13/senators-ok-congressmen-s-plea-for-higher-maifip-2328">Medical Assistance to Indigents and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP).</a></p><p>&quot;Imbes na pintasan nila agad itong pinakamalinis at pinaka-open, transparent at accountable — maaaring hindi perfect — na budget, pero tignan nila yung mga provision,” the Senate chief also said. </p><p>(Instead of criticizing the cleanest, most open, transparent and accountable — it might not be perfect — budget, they should look at the provision)</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/12/18/house-lawmakers-slam-pork-in-bicam-approved-2026-budget-1713">House lawmakers slam &#x27;pork,&#x27; unprogrammed appropriations in bicam-approved 2026 budget</a></div><div><br/></div><p>ACT Teachers Party-List Rep. Antonio Tinio and Kabataan Party List Rep. Renee Co are among the critics of the bicam-approved funding for unprogrammed appropriations and government programs that they said perpetuate patronage politics.</p><p>&quot;‘Yung medical services, ‘yung social welfare services, kailangan idaan pa sa pulitiko. Dapat i-abolish na ito, and instead pondohan talaga ng sapat ang ating health system, ang ating social welfare services, at iba pa,&quot; Tinio said.</p><p>(Medical services, social welfare services have to go through a politician. They should abolish that and just fund our health system and social welfare services directly)</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/12/17/leachon-maifip-medical-aid-program-could-lead-to-next-corruption-scandal-1417">Leachon: MAIFIP medical aid program could lead to next corruption scandal</a></div><p>“Nandyan pa rin ang pork barrel system na nakita natin. May translations ito sa education and sa health (The pork barrel system is still there. This translates to education and health),&quot; Co added, saying Filipinos sometimes have to approach politicians for medical assistance and scholarships.</p><p>Sotto pointed out that they removed the requirement of a guarantee letter from politicians to avail of the MAIFIP.</p><p>&quot;Hindi mo kayang awatin yung mga congressman o senador kung gusto nilang magbigay ng guarantee letters. Pero it&#x27;s no longer necessary. That&#x27;s my point. Dahil ilalagay na nga namin doon sa mga hospital mismo,&quot; Sotto said.</p><p>(You cannot stop congressmen and senators if they want to issue guarantee letters, but that is no longer necessary. We have put the program in the hospitals directly)</p><p>Sotto said he expects PhilHealth to implement zero balance billing fully so patients will not need to shell out money to access medical care.</p><p>“Sa laki ng budget na binigay sa kanila, may MAIFIP pa (With the large budget we gave them, and there&#x27;s MAIFIP on top of that),” he said.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/12/16/lawmaker-says-maifip-not-patronage-politics-1723">Lawmaker says MAIFIP &#x27;not patronage politics&#x27;</a></div><p>Sotto added does not think that the anti-political patronage provisions for aid programs would apply to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte.</p><p>&quot;Paano mo pagbabawalan ng presidente? Budget niya yan. Bakit? Wala namang i-epal ng presidente. Hindi naman siya pwede magreelection eh. Kaya kahit anong gawin niya basta makakatulong sa bayan, go,” Sotto said.</p><p>(How will you bar the president when that&#x27;s his proposed budget. Anyway, no president will use it for patronage since he cannot be reelected. So whatever he does as long as it is good for the country, go)</p><p>“Wala namang bawal dun sa vice president. Kung gusto niya tumulong, bakit hindi (There are no prohibitions either for the vice president. If she wants to help, then why not)?” he added.</p><p>Sotto said he believes the provisions applied to lawmakers.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>‘SOFT PORK’  </strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Several civil society groups on Friday flagged supposedly questionable items in the proposed 2026 national budget approved by the bicameral conference committee, primary of which are ayuda programs or social amelioration programs, which the groups called soft pork barrel. </p><p>These include the <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/12/17/aics-gets-p63-b-budget-higher-than-nep-s-p27-b-proposal-0700">Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS)</a>, which the bicam increased from P27 billion to P63.9 billion. </p><p>There is also the MAIFIP Program, which jumped to P51 billion from the P49 billion proposed by the House of Representatives and P29 billion proposed by the Senate.</p><p>Dr. Antonio Dans of the Health Professionals Alliance against COVID-19 said there were several problems with MAIFIP, particularly the alleged lack of management and accounting of the program. </p><p>Dans showed their data, which indicated that rich people could avail of MAIFIP and even received bigger amounts as compared to the poor. </p><p>Other alleged soft pork include TUPAD, Tulong Dunong, presidential assistance for farmers and fisherfolk, and the financial assistance to local government units. </p><p>AJ Montesa, co-convenor of the People’s Budget Coalition, said the aid programs become pet items for lawmakers or &quot;soft pork&quot; in contrast to &quot;hard&quot; projects like putting up infrastructure.</p><p>“These encourage patronage where you have to go to a politician, you have to ask for healthcare, you have to ask for a guarantee letter. And then a lot of times, the politicians will tend to favor kung sino yung mga political allies nila. That&#x27;s the individual distribution. And then on the macro-allocation level, the allocations favor those who are closest to those in power,” he said. </p><p>Soft pork is also allegedly hard to monitor because there is still some uncertainty whether the beneficiary is a real person, as compared to infrastructure projects, the completion of which could be validated. </p><p>“We&#x27;re not saying that we should abolish financial assistance or social protection. Important ito, but we should depoliticize it. We should remove the patronage element of these social protection programs,” Montesa said. </p><p>“Create a system to implement it well, to make it targeted. Make the rules very defined so that people know if they&#x27;re qualified or not. They don&#x27;t have to ask for a favor from a local politician,” he said. </p><div><br style="caret-color:rgb(0, 0, 0);color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"/></div>

<p>Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Friday rejected claims that senators put pork barrel in the proposed 2026 national budget through funds for government workers and indigent patients.</p>

Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Friday rejected claims that senators put pork barrel in the proposed 2026 national budget through funds for government workers and indigent patients.

‘Imposible yun’: Sotto rejects pork barrel claims in 2026 budget

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‘Imposible yun’: Sotto rejects pork barrel claims in 2026 budget

RG Cruz and Vivienne Gulla,

ABS-CBN News

Published Dec 19, 2025 03:31 PM PHT

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Updated Dec 19, 2025 04:58 PM PHT

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