How AI exposed Filipino Congressmen’s budget insertions — and now echoes around Marcos Jr's own family

MANILA: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. once thundered at lawmakers: “Mahiya naman kayo!” — “Have some shame!”

The call helped trigger a probe, which has reached his own cousin, Martin Romualdez (ex-House Speaker), who has resigned, been detained while faces a plunder case over alleged kickbacks from infrastructure projects.

A court has also ordered his 90-day preventive suspension.

Romualdez is not alone.

A senator and a former senator are also detained as new evidence piled up. A congressman linked to the scandal has fled abroad.

But now, the storm has moved closer to the President.

His son, House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos, 32, has been identified as the biggest recipient of "budget insertions" for public works in the proposed 2027 national budget, known as the General Appropriations Bill (GAB), now under Senate review.

Ilocos Norte 1st district, which Sandro represents, received ₱4.37 billion in proposed insertions, according to a watchdog finding reported by GMA Network.

The President’s 2025 State of the Nation rebuke was aimed at lawmakers.

It has since become a political weapon turned against the ruling family.

Sandro’s district initially had ₱400 million in Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) projects in the proposed 2027 budget.

The House appropriations committee — where he is an ex-officio member — raised it 12-fold to ₱4.8 billion, according to a Philippine media reports.

Malacañang, the presidential palace, says "insertions are not automatically improper".

It says the problem arises only when public money ends up in politicians’ pockets.

The issue is no longer only alleged corruption by allies. It now tests whether the President can demand accountability from others while his own son’s district tops the insertion list.

The alleged scheme involves more than 400 projects worth over ₱27 billion, a government witness told the anti-graft court, known as "Sandiganbayan".

Now, artificial intelligence (AI) has helped change how Filipinos scrutinise the national budget.

Volunteer group BetterGov.PH has used data analytics, computer prompts and coding to examine the proposed 2027 national budget, making it easier to identify billions of pesos in congressional budget additions that were previously buried in thousands of pages of government documents.

The group’s work matters: budget “insertions” are often difficult for ordinary citizens to trace.

They can appear as project line items, amendments or reallocations across multiple documents, rather than as a clearly labeled list of lawmakers’ priorities.

The watchdog's relevations raised a public furore. Not only the 2027 budget will undergo closer scrutiny by the actual implementation of the 2026 budget, per House Speaker Faustino Dy III.

AI-assisted analysis can flag unusual patterns, compare versions of budget documents and surface projects that deserve closer examination.

BetterGov.PH’s tools do not by themselves prove wrongdoing.

They identify potential leads for journalists, watchdogs, auditors and legislators.

The central question remains whether each project has a legitimate public purpose, adequate technical justification and a transparent route from proposal to implementation.

The scrutiny comes as Congress faces renewed criticism over “pork barrel”-style allocations.

Senator Panfilo Lacson said budget watchdogs must be prepared to monitor lengthy deliberations and block up to P1 trillion in potential “hard, soft and shadow” pork items, including public-works projects and social-assistance (known as "Ayuda") programmes.

The issue gained urgency after allegations of irregular flood-control spending.

President Marcos Jr. called in September 2025 for an independent commission to investigate not only flood-control projects but also operations within the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

A number of DPWH officals have been detained, some had committed suicide, and others turned into state witnesses.

Marcos Jr later halted new flood-control funding in the 2026 budget, citing unutilised 2025 funds.

The controversy followed claims that lawmakers received kickbacks (also known as "tongpats", or "SOP") connected to flood infrastructure projects.

Such allegations remain subject to investigation and judicial proceedings.

The House-approved 2027 budget reportedly added more than ₱180 billion in DPWH allocations through the "Budget Amendments and Review" Subcommittee.

Watchdogs have urged the Senate to remove insertions lacking technical justification, including "farm-to-market roads" plotted in offshore Africa or neighbouring Indonesia.

Reporting cited 7,000 congressman-inserted DPWH road and flood projects worth about ₱190 billion, allegedly without supporting program-of-work, costing, feasibility or local-endorsement documents.

Flood-control spending from 2022 to 2025 was estimated at ₱1.2 trillion, with low completion rates cited in public scrutiny.

Some House members disputed claims of ₱1 trillion in insertions.

One congressman cited the figure was "closer to ₱190 billion", further arguing the items were not "insertions".

The Supreme Court recently declared certain budget reallocations unconstitutional, although the ruling’s precise scope and legal consequences require separate verification.

The biggest challenge in the past is that the General Appropriations Bill (GAB, which becomes the General Appropriations Act, GAA, once approved) is a voluminous document, often more than 6,000 pages.

While publicly-available, going through it line-by-line is not for the faint-hearted.

Pre-AI, a GAA slice-and-dice job is tedious and time consuming.

Now, AI makes it easier. Result: public spending becomes more visible, almost instantly.

While it cannot replace human verification, AI could deliver instant query results on any document (including pdf file), with the right prompts.

Going forward, citizens and institutions could ask better questions about who requested projects, how they were funded and whether they deliver real public benefits.

Watch whether the Senate removes or conditions questionable House insertions, whether agencies publish project justifications, and whether AI-assisted findings lead to audits, investigations or criminal referrals.

Transparency will depend on accessible data, not only new technology.

The Sandiganbayan’s 90-day suspension does not decide Romualdez’s guilt. His plunder case remains pending.

Sandro Marcos has not been shown to have committed a crime.

But the scale of his district’s insertions will keep the question alive: who decides where billions go — and who benefits?

The issue is no longer only alleged corruption by allies.

It now tests whether the President can demand accountability from others while his own son’s district tops the insertion list.

Every peso of Filipino taxpayers' money spent must be duly accounted for.