Puno hits Speaker Bojie Dy’s leadership, says NUP considering move to minority
MANILA, Philippines – National Unity Party (NUP) chairman and acting president Ronaldo Puno expressed dissatisfaction on Monday, March 16, over the leadership of Speaker Bojie Dy, and revealed that NUP is mulling over the possibility of jumping to the House minority.
Puno was upset with budget woes hounding congressional districts, and how the House leadership is representing the lower chamber in talks with the executive branch.
Puno claimed that no public works projects materialized in the first quarter of 2026 since most of the funding was supposedly tagged as FLR or “for later release.” He claimed that under the new system, the district engineering offices oversee the bidding, after which the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will decide whether to authorize the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to issue a Special Allotment Release Order for the project.
“The budgets of public works everywhere, in effect, is zero, which is why no project is bid out,” Puno said. “This is a head-scratching policy.”
“This is very questionable. I don’t know where these people studied management because this is impossible. There are 15,000 to 20,000 public works projects per year. So you mean DBM will review 15,000 individual projects before they release the fund for a single project?” he added.
Puno then said Dy, who is the one talking directly with the Palace, has left House members in the dark.
He also complained about the lack of social amelioration funding for their districts, and lamented how congressmen like him and other NUP members had their district budgets slashed by at least half, while “those negotiating” on behalf of the House supposedly got billions of pesos in funding.
“We were asked to sacrifice, yet their districts were the ones that benefited,” Puno said. “There should be a leadership by example.”
A Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism report in December said the districts of Speaker Dy, House appropriations chair Mika Suansing, and her sister Sultan Kudarat Representative Bella Suansing, received the highest insertions in the House-proposed 2026 budget for DPWH.
“You are the spokesperson for more than 300 congressmen. You should put first others so you won’t be accused of taking advantage of your position as negotiator on behalf of Congress,” Puno said.
Rappler has reached out to Dy’s office, but has yet to receive a response.
Dy, a member of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, ascended to the top post in the House of Representatives in September, after the President’s cousin Martin Romualdez resigned in the wake of the public works corruption scandal.
Puno said he and his party mates will discuss over the break whether to bolt from the majority.
“We’ll let go of our work. Right? I will no longer be deputy speaker. (Our other members) will no longer be chairman of their committees. We’ll discuss it,” Puno added.
“I’m speaking on behalf of our members who are feeling abandoned, and all other congressmen who are feeling abandoned.” – Rappler.com
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