From 2023 to 2025, the national government earmarked close to ₱1.2 trillion in what budget documents call "allocables" — district public-works money that good-government groups consider the latest form of the pork barrel. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), which obtained and reviewed a Department of Public Works and Highways summary, laid out the figures district by district.
How "allocables" differ from the old pork
Allocables work differently from the Priority Development Assistance Fund the Supreme Court struck down in 2013. The PDAF let lawmakers choose projects after the budget passed. Allocables are baked into the spending plan before Congress debates it: the DPWH fixes each district's share in advance and writes it into the National Expenditure Program, which then becomes the General Appropriations Act. For 2025 alone, the allocable pot came to ₱356 billion.
The distinction matters. When the high court voided the PDAF, what made the system unconstitutional was the post-enactment power of legislators to identify projects. Allocables move that discretion upstream — into the drafting of the budget itself, before the public debate begins — which is far harder to see in the final appropriations law.
The biggest allocable-getters nationwide (2023–2025)
The largest single share over the three years went to the President's son, Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Alexander "Sandro" Marcos, at ₱15.79 billion. Next was Leyte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, the House Speaker, at ₱14.43 billion. Appearing high on the list is not an allegation of wrongdoing: allocables are lawful appropriations approved by Congress, and the figures simply show where the money was directed.
| # | 2023–2025 Allocable | District | Representative |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ₱15.79B | Ilocos Norte 1st | Ferdinand Alexander "Sandro" Marcos |
| 2 | ₱14.43B | Leyte 1st | Ferdinand Martin Romualdez (Speaker) |
| 3 | ₱10.56B | Taguig-Pateros 1st | Ricardo S. Cruz Jr. |
| 4 | ₱9.37B | Apayao (Lone) | Eleanor B. Begtang |
| 5 | ₱9.29B | Bukidnon 3rd | Jose Maria R. Zubiri Jr. |
| 6 | ₱9.24B | Zamboanga del Norte 3rd | Adrian Michael Amatong |
| 7 | ₱9.05B | Nueva Vizcaya (Lone) | Luisa Lloren Cuaresma |
| 8 | ₱8.63B | Davao City 2nd | Vincent J. Garcia |
| 9 | ₱8.43B | Agusan del Sur 2nd | Adolph Edward G. Plaza |
| 10 | ₱8.33B | Cebu 1st | Rhea Mae A. Gullas |
Data: Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, "Allocables are the new pork" (29 November 2025).
Who built the machinery
The system took its current shape under the 19th Congress — Romualdez as Speaker and Rep. Elizaldy "Zaldy" Co as chairman of the House appropriations committee, who assembled the 2023, 2024 and 2025 budgets before stepping down in January 2025. It is the same budget machinery now under examination in the Senate's flood-control corruption hearings.
Two ends of the same pipe
The Senate flood-control inquiry and the allocable data describe opposite ends of one system. The hearings concentrate on how money behaves once it is inside the budget — which contractors won, which projects were built, which turned out to be "ghost." The allocable figures point the other way: to how each district's share is fixed before the first peso is spent.
Negros Oriental's three congressional districts draw from the same allocable system as every other district in the country. One visible, downstream slice of public-works money in the province is its flood-control ledger: government databases record 115 flood-control projects worth about ₱4.53 billion in Negros Oriental — a compilation Kuryente News maintains at kuryentenews.com/transparency/floodcontrol and examines in a companion report, "Negros Oriental in the National Flood-Control Inquiry." The allocable mechanism is where shares like these begin.
The question this raises
It is a straightforward one: whether the Senate should widen its lens from individual projects to the allocable mechanism itself, beginning with the districts that drew the most. As with the flood-control compilation, naming a district or a representative here is not an accusation. These are lawful appropriations, on the public record. The point is that money this large, directed this deliberately, deserves to be examined where it is decided — not only where it is spent.
Sources: Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, "Allocables are the new pork" (29 November 2025); General Appropriations Acts 2023–2025; Department of Public Works and Highways. Kuryente News compiles public records for transparency; corrections are welcome.