MANILA — A lawmaker has called on the Department of Economic Planning and Development (DepDev) to increase the number of projects approved by regional development councils (RDCs) to prevent budget “insertions” and promote a more systematic budget process.

RDCs evaluate project proposals to ensure alignment with national development goals before submission to the national expenditure program (NEP), which forms the executive branch’s spending plan.

“Ang nangyayari kasi, shino-shortcut ang proseso, and this is where the problem comes in because some of those projects do not have feasibility studies and detailed engineering designs,” Senator Win Gatchalian said.

He added that bypassing the RDC review allows projects to be directly endorsed to the General Appropriations Act (GAA) without proper evaluation.

Gatchalian stressed that raising the approval rate of RDC-endorsed projects would encourage local government units to follow the proper process.

DepDev Secretary Arsenio Balisacan noted that only about one-third of projects in the NEP are RDC-approved.

“If we can improve the batting average, people will be encouraged to go through the process,” Gatchalian said.