Navotas City Lone District Representative Toby Tiangco on Tuesday rejected claims that the House-proposed 2026 infrastructure budget for his district contained insertions, stressing that the ₱748 million increase was a restoration of funds that had been wrongly removed.
In a privilege speech before the House plenary on December 16, Tiangco said he could not have made any insertions since he is not a member of the Committee on Appropriations.
“Wala pong katotohanan na ako ay may insertion. Hindi ko magagawa na mag-insert dahil hindi ako myembro ng Committee on Appropriations kaya’t imposible po ang sinasabi nila,” he said.
He explained that the proper basis for comparison should be the National Expenditure Program (NEP)-restored amount and not the revised NEP submitted earlier, noting that Navotas’ district budget should have been pegged at ₱1.41 billion based on restored levels from 2023 to 2025.
“Ang ₱748M ay hindi insertion. Hindi rin po ‘yun dagdag. ‘Yun ay halaga na ibinalik lang sa distrito ng Navotas dahil ‘yun ay nararapat para sa aming distrito… Hindi ako nag-insert at hindi nadagdagan ang budget ng distrito ng Navotas. May ibinalik lang, pero kulang pa rin ang ibinalik,” Tiangco said.
He added that despite the restoration, the district’s budget remains short of the ideal NEP-restored amount.