Senators back signing of 2026 budget in January
At A Glance
- Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo "Ping" M. Lacson said a briefly reenacted budget would be preferable than rushing the passage of the 2026 national budget only to find it unresponsive to the needs of the times, or worse, prone to corruption.
Senators on Wednesday, December 24 lauded President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s decision to sign the P6.793-trillion in the first week of January.
Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo "Ping" M. Lacson said a briefly reenacted budget would be preferable than rushing the passage of the 2026 national budget only to find it unresponsive to the needs of the times, or worse, prone to corruption.
“This is exactly what I said earlier - better a reenacted budget in January, or even in the first quarter of 2026, than rushing the passage of a national budget that is not responsive to the call of the times, amidst the yet unresolved investigations on the misuse and abuse of the current and previous expenditure programs, particularly involving flood control projects,” said Lacson, a long-time watchdog of the national budget.
Earlier, Executive Secretary Ralph Recto announced that President Marcos is scheduled to sign the P6.793-trillion budget for 2026 in the first week of January, meaning a reenacted budget for a few days.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee also welcomed the move as this would also give Malacañang sufficient time to scrutinize each item and provision of the budget measure.
“We acknowledge that submitting the budget to the Executive on December 29 is 2 days before the New Year and the Executive needs sufficient time to review the 4,000+ page enrolled copies of the budget,” Gatchalian said.
“The prudent course of action is to move the signing to January 5 to ensure that every provision is thoroughly reviewed,” he stressed.
Lacson said he expected a reenacted 2026 budget considering that the bicameral conference committee could not agree on certain issues.
The contentious issues included increasing the funding for farm-to-market roads (FMRs) as well as “ayuda” programs including the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) and Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS), which senators believe are open to potential abuse by politicians.
In addition to this, was the appeal of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to restore part of its budget, after its oft-repeated pronouncements to slash their own estimates involving overpriced Construction Materials Price Data (CMPD).
The Senate, in a caucus, decided to put in place several general and special provisions after the House panel insisted on these contentious issues.
Lacson said these special provisions will help serve as safety nets and safeguards in the execution of the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
“Certainly, the bicameral committee report is far from perfect insofar as proper utilization of public funds is concerned. Having said that, we cannot be in a perfect and ideal world when we entrust government funds to politicians of different persuasions and attitudes,” he said.
Nevertheless, Lacson said he believes that there are still many lawmakers both in the House of Representatives and the Senate who are willing to listen to public clamor of stamping out corruption in government.
“The key is not letting our guard down in monitoring and reporting, even shaming shenanigans in the public sector and their co-conspirators outside of government,” he said.