Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said he is confident President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will not veto the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026 or any of its provisions.

“I am confident that nothing will be vetoed in this budget because first of all, it is coordinated,” Gatchalian said in an interview on Sunday, December 21 over Radio DZBB.

“That is one of the things we did, (we) coordinated with the Executive. So we are not only making our own decisions but we are also coordinating with the Executive so that the outcome of the final version of the budget will be good,” the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee further said.

The Senate and House of Representatives concluded the bicameral conference committee meeting last Thursday, December 18, after successfully reconciling the disagreeing provisions under the measure. It is the first bicameral meeting that was publicly livestreamed to foster transparency and accountability.

Gatchalian said he is confident that next year’s budget will truly address the needs of the people.

“On the 28th (of December), we will return to sign the report. But we’ll no longer have the meetings. So, this is all just staff work,” he said.

“We’re doing reconciliation (of the version), the General Appropriations Act (GAA) is being drafted, what we call the enrolled bill. That is being drafted and manually. So that is also one of the things we’re looking at, how to automate using new technologies,” he pointed.

“So I think in the future, we will just use new technologies to be more transparent, faster and when the budget is drafted, it will not take more than a week to draft the budget,” the senator added.

Moreover, Gatchalian said Congress will also activate the Joint Congressional Oversight on Public Expenditures as part of transparency efforts.

“This is a great, and very powerful committee, but it has not been activated in many, many years,” he said.

“So this Oversight Committee will be activated so that every month, maybe every week, there will be oversight here on the key programs of the government,” the lawmaker stressed.

Gatchalian assured that the oversight panel will not only have hearings when the National Expenditure Program (NEP) arrives but will function “all-year round” so lawmakers can focus on careful spending, “and not spending either.”

“One of the things we discovered is that a lot of funds are not being spent. So, the agency asks for funds, but they are not being spent. Or they are being spent, but they are not being spent properly. So, that is one thing we will do when the new year comes,” he remarked.