Bicameral committee report on 2026 budget signed

PHILIPPINE LAWMAKERS on Sunday signed the bicameral committee report on the P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026, with the Senate and House expected to ratify the report on Monday.

“We made sure the process is transparent and accountable to the Filipino people… This budget is a product of reforms both on the part of the House and the Senate towards transparency,” Nueva Ecija Rep. and House Appropriations Committee Chair Mikaela Angela B. Suansing said during the signing ceremony.

“This is a product of the first open bicam in history,” she added.

Ms. Suansing said Congress aims to ratify the enrolled copy of the bill or the proposed 2026 General Appropriations Act on Monday (Dec. 29).

The measure will then be sent to President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. for review and approval.

“This will be signed by the President, so if there are changes (to the budget bill) it is in his power to do so,” Senator Sherwin T. Gatchalian, who heads the Senate Finance Committee, said during the same event.

Once ratified by Congress, Mr. Gatchalian said the reconciled version of the budget bill will be uploaded on transparency portals of the House and the Senate.

“All documents will be uploaded including their annexes,” he added.

Mr. Gatchalian emphasized that next year’s budget focuses on education, health, and agriculture, which are important for the development of the country.

The conference committee report of the 2026 budget has over 4,300 pages, which Mr. Gatchalian said was proofread five times by congressional staff.

“This is the first time people can track the start of the budget process from the National Expenditure Program, the approved version of the House and Senate, and now the final version of the bicameral conference committee,” the senator said.

Executive Secretary Ralph G. Recto last week said that the President aims to sign the 2026 General Appropriations Act by Jan. 5. This would result in the government operating on a reenacted budget in the first few days of January.

Mr. Marcos was initially expected to sign the national budget on Dec. 29. However, disagreements over the Department of Public Works and Highway’s  budget had stalled the bicameral conference committee’s proceedings, which were livestreamed for the first time.

On the sidelines, Mr. Gatchalian said that the short reenactment of the 2025 budget would have minimal impact on the country’s economy.

“Due to the holidays, I don’t see that the five-day delay in signing the budget would have any impact on our economy,” he told reporters. “Because the budget report would be sent tomorrow, (the President) would really need at least one week to carefully study and review the provisions.”

Ederson DT. Tapia, a political science professor at the University of Makati, said that the long-term impact of a reenacted budget in the first few days of January could be manageable.

“The key issue is predictability. The closer the signing is to the start of the fiscal year, the easier it is for agencies to plan and execute. From a governance perspective, avoiding reenactment altogether remains preferable, but a short one is more a governance inconvenience than a fiscal crisis, provided it does not become a recurring pattern,” he said in a Messenger chat.

Joy G. Aceron, convenor-director of transparency group G-Watch, said the economy may be affected by the reenactment of the “corruption-riden 2025 budget” even for a few days.

“Having a reenacted budget that has been the subject of corruption controversies this past year even for just one week is another indication of failing governance in the country,” she said in a Facebook Messenger chat.

The 2025 budget faced heightened public scrutiny after several opaque budget allocations and congressional insertions were found, prompting calls for better transparency and accountability.

Ms. Aceron said the Executive department’s review of the 2026 budget should be monitored to ensure that there are no budget realignments.

“Because of the general distrust, the review of the Executive needs to be checked to ensure it will not just be another way to realign pork according to partisan political lines,” she said. — Adrian H. Halili