The Senate’s budget monitoring office has stated that it has no official record of the alleged budget “insertions” attributed to Senator Jinggoy Estrada in the 2025 national budget, which have been linked to controversial flood control projects flagged as substandard or potentially ghost projects.

In a formal reply to a Subpoena Duces Tecum issued by the Office of the Ombudsman, the Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office (LBRMO) said it could not comply with the request for specific records, citing the absence of documentation on the alleged insertions during bicameral conference committee deliberations.

The response, signed by LBRMO Director General Eireen Palanca and addressed to Ombudsman supervising director Ferdinand San Joaquin, clarified that it had no records of such amendments being introduced under Estrada’s name in the budget process.

According to the LBRMO, proposed amendments from senators are first submitted to the Senate Committee on Finance. Once approved in plenary, these become official amendments of the entire Senate, not attributed to individual lawmakers in the final record.

The office also said it was unable to provide the names of technical staff requested in the subpoena, noting that the absence of specific dates and clear references in the request made identification of records difficult.

The LBRMO serves as a support unit for senators during national budget deliberations.

The issue stems from allegations raised during a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing, where former Bulacan First Engineering District Assistant District Engineer Engr. Brice Hernandez claimed that projects worth around ₱355 million were allegedly facilitated with involvement attributed to Senator Estrada.

The matter has fueled scrutiny over the legitimacy of certain infrastructure allocations, particularly flood control projects, amid earlier concerns raised by lawmakers regarding possible irregularities.