The House leadership has opted to let the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) fix the supposedly flawed P6.793-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2026 during the course of the budget hearings instead of returning the entire book to the agency.

This was bared in separate interviews on Thursday morning, Sept. 4 by senior party leaders in the House of Representatives namely Deputy Speaker Antipolo 1st district Rep. Ronaldo "Ronnie" Puno of the National Unity Party (NUP) and Palawan 2nd Rep. Jose "Pepito" Alvarez of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC).

They gave their remarks less than 24 hours after an impassioned group of party leaders sought to return the 2026 NEP to the DBM for correction. They said the proposed national budget was riddled with irregularities and questionable insertions.

According to Puno, House Speaker Martin Romualdez had advised the party heads to let the ongoing budget hearings of the Committee on Appropriations has out the problems found in the allocations of agencies.

Puno had suggested on Wednesday afternoon that House members skip the budget hearings until Romualdez decides on their recommendation to return the NEP.

Meanwhile, Alvarez DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and newly-installed Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Vince Dizon called the House leadership Wednesday night to plea for the continuation of the budget deliberations.

"Hindi na muna [ibabalik]. Sila nakiusap na dito na lang, ituloy na lang para hindi na magahol sa panahon (We won't return it as of now. They're the ones who asked to do it here, to just continue to the hearings so as not to run short on time)," Alvarez said.

"And we gave them 10 days to do it," he added, referring to the DBM and the DPWH.

The 2026 funding of the DPWH, which the party leaders earlier flagged for missing appropriations and duplicate appropriations, is pencilled to tackled by the appropriations committee on Friday, Sept. 5.

"Kung mapo-postpone bukas, baka lunes na si Vince [Dizon] to give him enough time para busisihin niya (If tomorrow will be postponed then Vince might come here Monday to give him enough time to peruse it)," Alvarez said.

Dizon formally took over the reins at DPWH only last Sept. 2. He replaced Manuel Bonoan, who resigned amid the massive controversy on anomalous and "ghost" flood control projects.

The Nueva Ecija 1st district Rep. Mikaela Angela "Mika" Suansing-led appropriations committee is on its third week on deliberations on the NEP. 

In a subsequent press conference Thursday, House of Representatives Spokesperson Princess Abante confirmed Puno's remarks about his meeting with Romualdez, and that the budget hearings would contine as scheduled.

If anything, she noted that the House members' reservations on the NEP weren't confined on the DPWH funds.

"They also mentioned other departments as well, DA, Department of Agriculture, DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) and among others. So ang pinupunto ng party leaders na sa sobrang dami ng naobserbahan nila na tilang mangled na budget proposal, hindi ito pwedeng itama lang ng Kamara through the usual errata na mamaya sasabihin ito na naman ay mga insertions ng mga miyembro ng Kamara. Dapat ito itama muna ng DBM muli sa kanilang budget proposal na binigay.

(So what the party leaders are pointing out is that, because they observed so many issues in the budget proposal that seems mangled, it cannot simply be corrected by the House through the usual errata, which might later be labeled again as insertions by its members. It should first be corrected by the DBM in the budget proposal they submitted.)

Abante went on to clarify that the party leaders never meant to do a physical return of the NEP.

"It is not a physical return. Hindi ito ang na-envision siguro ng marami na i-impake ang mga libro na pinadala dito at ibabalik. Pero ito yung panawagan ng party leaders sa DBM: to review, to revisit and to correct yung budget proposal," she said.

(This probably isn’t what many envisioned, that the books sent here would be packed up and returned. But this is the call of the party leaders to the DBM: to review, to revisit, and to correct the budget proposal.)

"Now I've seen the interviews of other party leaders and sabi nga nila kung hindi man yung aktual na pagbabalik, ibig sabihin dito sa House magiging masinsin ang kanilang pag-deliberate ng bawat budget ng departamento para masiguro na ang corrections na kailangan gawin ng departamento ay manggaling sa kanila. I-acknowledge nila ang mga maling items na nilagay nila para i-correct ng Kamara," the lawyer-spokesperson pointed out.

(Now, I’ve seen the interviews of other party leaders, and as they said, even if the actual return doesn’t happen, it means that here in the House, their deliberation of each department’s budget will be thorough to ensure that the corrections needed by the departments will come from them. They should acknowledge the incorrect items they included so that the House can correct them.)

"This is not a simple matter for the House, this is a serious task. This is mandate given to the House of Representatives by the Constitution to review, to approve the budget of the government, kaya siniseryoso ng Kamara ang kanilang tungkulin (that's why Congress is taking its duty seriously)," Abante further said.