MANILA, Philippines — Senators have removed more than P50 billion worth of “lump sum increases” in the proposed funding for the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) next year.

The lump sums were contained in the 2025 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) submitted by the House of Representatives to the Senate.

Sen. Imee Marcos revealed this on Monday after Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III asked about the P42.5 billion allotted by Malacañang for NIA next year.

Marcos, who was defending the agency’s budget on the Senate floor, confirmed the amount but said there were “lump sums” added in the House of Representatives.

“What we did in the Senate version is firstly, delete all the lump sums because I believe, as Sen. (Raffy) Tulfo highlighted, that this is the source of confusion and potential corruption because there are no line items. There is no identification of individual projects or even their location,” she explained.

“So as a result, the subcommittee deleted P51.135 billion worth of lump sum increases in pump irrigation, communal irrigation, national system irrigation. So nagtanggal po ako ng napakalaking halaga pero (I removed a significant amount but)…which ended up in the budget being P41 billion as the Minority Leader cited earlier,” she added.

While removing these lump sums, Marcos said the Senate finance subcommittee restored the P6.135 billion budget for assistance to farmers, heavy equipment, and locally funded projects, bringing the new total budget proposal for NIA to P47.558 billion.

READ: Zarate claims P16-B NIA funds for 2022 ‘lump sum’, ‘pork barrel’

The P6.135 billion, according to her, was included in Malacañang’s proposal under the National Expenditures Program (NEP) but it was removed by the House.

“Sorry po for the confusion, but I felt compelled to remove the lump sums,” she said.

“Natatakot po ako sa lump sums (I am worried about the lump sum),” she later added.

Still responding to Pimentel’s queries, Marcos explained that the biggest item in the lump sums is the Pump Irrigation Sub-Program which was worth P44.385 billion.

“That’s a single procurement contract,” she pointed out.

Although the NIA requested a maximum budget of P25 billion for the said project, Marcos said Malacañang only approved P2 billion as reflected in the NEP.

“Ang NEP nasa P2 billion po, and it ballooned to P44.38 (billion),” she said.

Noting the big discrepancy, Pimentel could not help but remark that the House appears to have acted as the executive.

“Mas marami silang ideas na for execution ng executive agency na ito,” he said.

(They have more ideas for the execution of this executive agency.)

Pimentel surmised that as district representatives, House lawmakers consider irrigation a priority project.

A former representative of Ilocos Norte, Marcos also recognized the parochial concerns “and desire to perform” of her counterparts in the House.

“Pero kinabahan po ako from P2 billion naging P44 billion,” she stressed.

(But I got nervous when it went from P2 billion to P44 billion.)

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But it is not too late yet777rainbow, Marcos said, adding that the Senate and the House can still “come to a reasonable and enlightened compromise” when they meet and finalize the 2025 national budget.

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