The Budget Amendments Review Sub-committee (BARSc) ended its mission in this year's budget process by further augmenting allocations for the priroty sectors of education, agriculture, and health in the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026.

This was announced by Nueva Ecija 1st district Rep. Mikaela Angela "Mika" Suansing at the conclusion of the BARSc's marathon Wednesday night, Oct. 8.

The BARSc is a sub-committee of the House Committee on Appropriations, which Suansing leads and oversees the passage of the annual budget measure or General Appropriations Bill (GAB).

The mother committee is expected to approve the BARSc's latest ammendments to the 2026 GAB on Thursday, Oct. 9, or just before the House plenary's approval of the budget on second reading the next day, Oct. 10.

A matrix shown during the BARSc heading indicated the congressmen's additional augmentation of P18.333 billion to the education sector, covering Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHEd), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and Philippine Science High School; P3.293 billion to the health sector, covering the Department of Health (DOH) and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth); and P8.786 billion to the agriculture sector, covering the Department of Agriculture (DA), National Irrigation Administration (NIA), and Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR).

These proposed realignments were on top of those made by the sub-committee in its earlier hearing last Sept. 22. The original funding tweaks--already approved by the mother committee--are as follows: P38.303 billion for education, P89.281 billion for health, and P44.967 billion for agriculture.

This means that by its expected second reading passage on Friday, the 2026 GAB--the biggest in the country’s history--will have realignments worth P56.637 billion, P92.575 billion, and P53.754 billion, respectively for these key sectors. The total is P202.966 billion.

Suansing said in the Sept. 22 BARSc hearing that no less than President Marcos identified the priroty sectors for budget realignment.

Realignments are normal during the budget process. But with the flood control projects corruption scandal leaving a bad taste in the mouth, the House of Representatives has made a conscious effort to funnel the available funds toward social services and investments on human capital.

The P202.966 billion sectoral total will be sourced from the P255.528 billion that was initially earmarked for flood control projects under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

"The rest went to the other agencies...roughly P53 billion," Suansing said.

Among the more celebrated proposed amendments Thursday was the allocation for the construction of 25,000 new classrooms in 2026.

"I am very happy to share with the BARSc that we have found the fiscal space to add more to the Basic Education Facilities (BEF) program, towards the new construction, completion, rehabilitation of classrooms," Suansing said.

The Harvard-educated solon said the BEF in the National Expenditure Program (NEP), the precursor of the GAB was at P28 billion originally. The amount will be jacked up to P63 billion.

"If we add the P35 billion, that will be P63 billion in total for classrooms. So with the new proposal for the BEF amounting to P63 billion, we will now be able to create more or less po ito, because it’s spread across construction, completion, rehabilitation, and fixtures--we’ll roughly be able to build 25,000 classrooms in 2026. So that would greatly address the deficit as highlighted by the President in his SONA (State of the Nation Address)," she explained.

"In addition to the NEP amount, we are also proposing to add P414 million towards the computerization program of DepEd, and an additional P50 million towards the procurement of textbooks and learning materials," she said.

She also highlighted that with the latest realignments, the total funding for the education sector was 4.36 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) of 2025.

The BARSc essentially replaced the so-called "small committee", which was criticized for its alleged lack of transparency.

"This is the very first time in history wherein the special provisions were discussed openly and all the amendments were discussed openly...I would like to thank everyone for bearing with us on this. Again this is historic. This is the very first time that we have done something like this," Suansing noted.

"Again this is in response to the clamor of our countrymen to make the budget process more transparent and more open. Tinatanggal na po namin yung tabing sa usaping budget (We're removing the veil on the budget discussions)," she said.

Both BARSc hearings were livestreamed.

The sub-committee--upon a motion by Senior Vice Chairman Bataan 2nd district Rep. Albert Garcia--will also recommend for plenary approval a complete substitution of House Bill (HB) No.4058 that would reflect all the proposed realignments and changes. HB No.4058 is the numerical designation of next year's GAB.