OPINION
Ed Javier
Small Committee, Big Money Rep. Mikaela Suansing And The House Under Scrutiny
Photo credit: Congress PH
In our provincial home, far from the chaos of Metro Manila, we sip coffee and write this piece, racing against a deadline while the morning sun glints off coconut trees.
Even here, the questions about congressional budgets weigh as heavily as they do in the Metro.
Budgets are supposed to be about the people’s money. Too often, they reveal whose pockets are growing while the public watches.
The opening house briefing on the ₱6.793-trillion 2026 budget offered a glimpse: Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco asked a simple question, where is the report of the “small committee” that altered the 2025 budget after plenary approval?
To outsiders, the small committee sounds harmless, formed after the budget passes third reading to fix errors and reconcile amendments.
In practice, it became a backroom where last-minute insertions slip in without plenary scrutiny. Flood-control and infrastructure projects suddenly multiply, “congressional initiatives” are fattened, and billions can move quietly.
Tiangco’s question matters. He wasn’t fishing for gossip; he was asking for the paper trail of realignments made after the lights went off. The report should exist, be archived, and be available to members.
Instead, House Appropriations Chair Rep. Mikaela Suansing deflected. She wasn’t chair then, it belonged to the previous Congress, the request must be “considered.”
Translation: that’s not us. That isn’t transparency. That’s evasion.
Junior as she is, Suansing’s inexperience shows in these evasive answers. Leadership isn’t selective memory. When you take the gavel, you inherit the files, and the responsibility.
If the Appropriations chair cannot assure lawmakers that the small committee record exists, much less release it, why should taxpayers believe this year’s process will be any cleaner than last year’s?
Speaker Martin Romualdez has promised a “new era” of transparency: open bicams, public scrutiny, and, in principle, the abolition of the small committee.
These promises echo earlier calls for reform. Yet the proof lies in records, not press releases. If the House cannot produce the last small committee report, what has changed besides rhetoric?
We are informed that even some members of the minority in the last Congress had been co-opted in behind-the-scenes negotiations, allegedly becoming part of the circle that inserted pork through the ghost committee.
That is why advocacy for a genuine minority, one that is a real check on power and not reduced to being political stooges of the Speaker, is still urgent.
Public records show the Department of Public Works and Highways ballooned from ₱786.6 billion in 2022 to over ₱1.007 trillion in 2025.
The flood-control line more than doubled, from ₱128 billion to about ₱257 billion in just three years.
Yet in places like Malolos, Calumpit, and Hagonoy in Bulacan, which received billions for flood-control projects, whenever we drive home from Manila, we see firsthand streets submerged and people wading through waist-deep water, evidence that billions in allocations have not translated into real protection.
Political gossip is deafening.
We do not know if it is true but some senior lawmakers, past and present, reportedly saw their net worth explode in tandem with DPWH allocations. From 2022 to 2025, certain House leaders allegedly increased their SALNs by 600%, 800%, even over 1,000%.
While we cannot verify every claim, the parallels between ballooning budgets and massive increases in lawmakers’ assets are hard to ignore.
When a flood-control line item swells by ₱100 billion and a politician’s SALN reportedly rises by a billion or more, the symmetry is striking.
Even President Marcos Jr. has flagged kickbacks in flood-control projects and warned against pork-laden budgets.
Tiangco’s simple, reasonable question demands an answer.
The small committee record is not trivia; it is the ledger of accountability. Hide it, and you validate every suspicion about shadow budgeting, pork that never dies, and a Congress protecting old habits under new promises.
Past chairs such as Rolando Andaya Sr., Rolando Andaya Jr., and Isidro Ungab set precedents Suansing could improve upon.
She is young and has room to chart her own course, if she can resist instructions from above, avoiding the overhyped press-release machinery of her boss, and addressing real accountability.
The House should stop pretending it is complicated. Madam Chair, Mr. Speaker, the people are watching.
Produce the records or admit the scheme. There is no middle ground.
We’d like to give Suansing the chance to show real leadership. If the small committee report cannot be produced, summon Rep. Zaldy Co and every member of that small committee, minority included, to explain themselves before the House and the public.
The real question: will Suansing have the courage to demand answers or will she choose political convenience and focus on bringing more projects for her district?
Because in the end, budgets do not lie.
Mga pulitiko lang ang mahilig magsinungaling.
Even here, the questions about congressional budgets weigh as heavily as they do in the Metro.
Budgets are supposed to be about the people’s money. Too often, they reveal whose pockets are growing while the public watches.
The opening house briefing on the ₱6.793-trillion 2026 budget offered a glimpse: Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco asked a simple question, where is the report of the “small committee” that altered the 2025 budget after plenary approval?
To outsiders, the small committee sounds harmless, formed after the budget passes third reading to fix errors and reconcile amendments.
In practice, it became a backroom where last-minute insertions slip in without plenary scrutiny. Flood-control and infrastructure projects suddenly multiply, “congressional initiatives” are fattened, and billions can move quietly.
Tiangco’s question matters. He wasn’t fishing for gossip; he was asking for the paper trail of realignments made after the lights went off. The report should exist, be archived, and be available to members.
Instead, House Appropriations Chair Rep. Mikaela Suansing deflected. She wasn’t chair then, it belonged to the previous Congress, the request must be “considered.”
Translation: that’s not us. That isn’t transparency. That’s evasion.
Junior as she is, Suansing’s inexperience shows in these evasive answers. Leadership isn’t selective memory. When you take the gavel, you inherit the files, and the responsibility.
If the Appropriations chair cannot assure lawmakers that the small committee record exists, much less release it, why should taxpayers believe this year’s process will be any cleaner than last year’s?
Speaker Martin Romualdez has promised a “new era” of transparency: open bicams, public scrutiny, and, in principle, the abolition of the small committee.
These promises echo earlier calls for reform. Yet the proof lies in records, not press releases. If the House cannot produce the last small committee report, what has changed besides rhetoric?
We are informed that even some members of the minority in the last Congress had been co-opted in behind-the-scenes negotiations, allegedly becoming part of the circle that inserted pork through the ghost committee.
That is why advocacy for a genuine minority, one that is a real check on power and not reduced to being political stooges of the Speaker, is still urgent.
Public records show the Department of Public Works and Highways ballooned from ₱786.6 billion in 2022 to over ₱1.007 trillion in 2025.
The flood-control line more than doubled, from ₱128 billion to about ₱257 billion in just three years.
Yet in places like Malolos, Calumpit, and Hagonoy in Bulacan, which received billions for flood-control projects, whenever we drive home from Manila, we see firsthand streets submerged and people wading through waist-deep water, evidence that billions in allocations have not translated into real protection.
Political gossip is deafening.
We do not know if it is true but some senior lawmakers, past and present, reportedly saw their net worth explode in tandem with DPWH allocations. From 2022 to 2025, certain House leaders allegedly increased their SALNs by 600%, 800%, even over 1,000%.
While we cannot verify every claim, the parallels between ballooning budgets and massive increases in lawmakers’ assets are hard to ignore.
When a flood-control line item swells by ₱100 billion and a politician’s SALN reportedly rises by a billion or more, the symmetry is striking.
Even President Marcos Jr. has flagged kickbacks in flood-control projects and warned against pork-laden budgets.
Tiangco’s simple, reasonable question demands an answer.
The small committee record is not trivia; it is the ledger of accountability. Hide it, and you validate every suspicion about shadow budgeting, pork that never dies, and a Congress protecting old habits under new promises.
Past chairs such as Rolando Andaya Sr., Rolando Andaya Jr., and Isidro Ungab set precedents Suansing could improve upon.
She is young and has room to chart her own course, if she can resist instructions from above, avoiding the overhyped press-release machinery of her boss, and addressing real accountability.
The House should stop pretending it is complicated. Madam Chair, Mr. Speaker, the people are watching.
Produce the records or admit the scheme. There is no middle ground.
We’d like to give Suansing the chance to show real leadership. If the small committee report cannot be produced, summon Rep. Zaldy Co and every member of that small committee, minority included, to explain themselves before the House and the public.
The real question: will Suansing have the courage to demand answers or will she choose political convenience and focus on bringing more projects for her district?
Because in the end, budgets do not lie.
Mga pulitiko lang ang mahilig magsinungaling.
Aug 20, 2025
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