Former Sen. Grace Poe backs budget process changes in ICI meeting

Former senator Grace Poe — File photo from Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau

MANILA, Philippines — Former Sen. Grace Poe, who previously served as a finance committee chair in the upper chamber, on Tuesday said major legislative changes in the budget process should be introduced amid the ongoing probe by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) into the anomalous flood contracts.

Poe, who served as finance committee chair in the 19th Congress, was among the resource persons invited by the ICI during its closed-door meetings.

She said she was asked to explain the process that went down in the legislature for the amendments and passage of the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA). Poe ended her 12-year term during the 19th Congress in June.

“They wanted to identify first whether there were any ghost projects or substandard ones [and] which legislators were the proponents,” Poe told reporters in a chance interview.

What she hopes to see in this ongoing ICC investigation into the flood control mess are major changes in the budget process, especially the identification of lawmakers who proposed amendments to certain items in the proposed budget.

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Poe admitted there were indeed amendments because most senators have their own institutional and individual amendments in the budget process that have been submitted to the secretariat. She however, denied presence in small bicam, saying she never joined any of those outside the legitimate bicam.

“I’m not privy to that [small committee and closed-door meeting], I didn’t join any of those,” she said in Filipino.

“It’s a learning process, it’s a painful process, but I think this is something that needs to be done,” said Poe. /das