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MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang has begun a “thorough review” of next year’s P6.793-trillion national budget, ratified on Monday by Congress as the nation continues to reel from the multibillion-peso flood control scandal.
Executive Secretary Ralph Recto said a “deliberate” review of the 2026 budget “safeguards fiscal discipline” and “ensures that taxpayers’ hard-earned money is spent wisely and translated into benefits for the Filipino people.”
“The executive branch received on Dec. 29, 2025 the ratified 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA) and is now conducting a thorough review to ensure its integrity and effective execution,” Recto said in a statement.
“We will ensure that the 2026 GAA will satisfy not only the legal and technical requirements but, more importantly, the needs of the Filipino people,” he added. Recto said the budget review is expected to take about a week.
President Marcos and his team are scrutinizing all allocations and provisions to fully account for any changes from the originally submitted National Expenditure Program (NEP), he added. The NEP is the proposed national budget submitted by the executive branch to Congress.
Malacañang originally pushed for the signing of the 2026 national budget this year, but a change in the legislative calendar prompted a rescheduling of its ratification to Dec. 29. With the change in schedule, the appropriations measure for next year is expected to be signed into law in the first week of January, which means a reenactment of the 2025 budget in the first few days of 2026.
Experts have warned that a reenacted budget could delay the implementation of important projects and affect economic growth. However, Recto reiterated that a brief period under a reenacted budget would not disrupt government operations.
In July, Marcos said he would reject a spending bill that is inconsistent with the NEP even if the government ends up operating under a reenacted budget.
“For the 2026 national budget, I will return any proposed general appropriations bill that is not fully aligned with the National Expenditure Program,” he said during his fourth State of the Nation Address.
The President made the remark after acknowledging that some flood projects were substandard. He also promised to file cases against those who benefited from anomalous transactions.
Last year, Marcos vetoed P194 billion worth of items in the 2025 budget, saying they were not consistent with the administration’s priorities. A total of 180 public works projects and 15 unprogrammed appropriations were scrapped from this year’s outlay.
Intel funds
After voting against ratifying the committee report on the 2026 budget, ML party-list Rep. Leila de Lima expressed her concern over the allocation of P12 billion in confidential and intelligence funds for five agencies and departments with no need for such funds.
“Such funds were even given to agencies with no primary security mandate,” De Lima said, referring to the Departments of Environment and Natural Resources and Social Welfare and Development, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs of the Department of Finance and the Anti-Red Tape Authority.
“Why give them secret funds? Why was ARTA included, which used to have none or zero, but which now has a budget of P6.7 million? Worse, these allocations were never deliberated upon during the livestreamed sessions of the bicameral conference committee,” De Lima said.
For Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr., President Marcos should use his veto powers in response to people’s sentiments against all forms of pork barrel.
“Vetoes are possible. The President could choose caution instead of allowing some line items to stay in the budget,” Garbin said.
“The use of the unprogrammed fund might be trimmed further. But funds for new laws that take effect in 2026 can and should be sourced from the unprogrammed fund,” he added.
House appropriations committee chairperson Rep. Mikaela Angela Suansing of Nueva Ecija has again belied insinuations that House leaders had made secret insertions in the 2026 budget for the chamber.
“Definitely, this was not done secretly. And I invite our colleague to please take a look at the previous hearings and deliberations,” Suansing, head of the House contingent in the bicameral conference committee, said.
“I don’t want to name names, but one of our colleagues said this was secretly inserted. I invite him to again review the deliberations. This was discussed in the plenary and the bicam deliberations,” she added.
Suansing pointed out that the chamber’s allotment of P27 billion for 2026 was “lower than our appropriations of P33 billion” but higher than the original P16.3-billion allocation.
If the original budget was retained, she said it would leave around 50 lawmakers without salary and their respective offices non-functional. “The budget increase for the House was subjected to comprehensive deliberations and there is justification for the increase.”
“At the National Expenditure Program level, and we discussed it with the Department of Budget and Management, is that there are 312 Congress members. The assumption at the NEP level was that there would only be 260 to 280 members,” she pointed out.
At the same time, Suansing also belied insinuations made by Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste that each congressman had been allotted P150 million to secure their votes for the ratification of the 2026 national budget.
“The House leadership does not influence any individual member of the House in any manner that he wants to cast his vote. The House is a collegial body,” she stressed.
“We respect each member to have the freedom to vote and to decide based on the needs of their constituents and their conscience,” the senior administration lawmaker added.
‘Most transparent’
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, for his part, described the ratification of the budget measure as “the most transparent” budget process.
“The ball now shifts to the executive to implement it with the same daylight the Senate showed while we keep watch on delivery,” Zubiri said.
He noted that the process was carried out in full view of the public in order to restore public trust in government’s handling of taxpayers’ money.
“From first briefing to last gavel, proceedings were open. Livestreams stayed up, side-by-side matrices were posted and every movement in the numbers carried authorship and explanation so people could watch, read and verify without insider access. We kept a hard verification step before ratification,” Zubiri said.
“This should be the new normal for the budget process,” he added.
For infrastructure projects itemized in the budget, Zubiri said the spending plan now requires exact GPS coordinates, programs of work and strict deadlines so that the public can track if these were properly implemented.
Large-scale projects must also be backed by local government resolutions and go through the Regional Development Council so that “budget amendments can translate to real outcomes families feel,” Zubiri said.
“Now the executive must carry this across the finish line with the same commitment to transparency that we in the Senate have shown,” he said.
Sen. Bam Aquino, meanwhile, said the public must remain vigilant in monitoring the implementation of the 2026 national budget despite the record P1.35-trillion allocation for education.
Aquino, chairman of the committee on basic education, warned that the passage of the spending plan does not guarantee funds would be used properly.
Aquino said the increase is expected to fund additional classrooms, expand student feeding programs and strengthen support for higher education.
The allocation for education includes P67 billion for the implementation of Republic Act 10931, or the Free College Law, including funding for the Tertiary Education Subsidy for underprivileged students.
The budget also sets aside P68 billion for classroom construction, up from P18 billion last year, and P25.6 billion for the School-Based Feeding Program, higher than the P11.7 billion allocation in 2025.
Included as well is a P500-million allocation under the Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses of the Higher Education Development Program for financial support for Related Learning Experience requirements in allied health sciences programs, a measure proposed by Aquino. — Delon Porcalla, Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Neil Jayson Servallos, Jose Rodel Clapano
