The Senate will no longer allow “alien” provisions to be included in the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026.

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo "Ping" Lacson (Facebook)

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said this was the agreement in the Senate to make the budget process open “all the way to the bicam, and all the way to the enrolled bill.”

“We’ve already discussed this and we agreed with the Senate President, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, that up until the bicam (bicameral conference committee meeting), it will be fully transparent,” Lacson said during a Kapihan sa Senado forum.

“He’s just trying to figure out how to go about it. But the initial step is that no ‘alien’ provision can be inserted into the disagreeing provisions. We will limit, for easier monitoring also, we’ll just limit ourselves to putting up a matrix, juxtapozed with the House version against the Senate version. And we will confine or limit ourselves to synchronizing or reconciling the disagreeing provisions,” the senator stressed.

He also affirmed that the Senate will also removed the unprogrammed funds or unprogrammed appropriations.

“We will limit that to foreign-assisted projects. And of course, for special purpose, or contingent, like quick reaction fund. We can’t remove that, because what if there is a calamity,” he pointed out.

“So at least along that line, we are all in agreement and that’s a good step for us to be transparent in passing the budget bill all the way to the bicam, all the way to the enrolled bill,” Lacson said.

The Senate concluded its committee deliberations on the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) last week. The House of Representatives approved the GAB last month before transmitting copies of its approved version digitally to the Senate.

Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, earlier said he plans to sponsor the proposed 2026 national budget in plenary on November 12.