The influential Makati Business Club (MBC) expects 2026 to be a better year for businesses, even as the government continues to struggle to address the corruption scandal in public infrastructure.

Despite the ongoing corruption mess, MBC Executive Director Rafael Ongpin said last year’s macroeconomic indicators suggest potential upside for economic growth this year.

Ongpin pointed to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which slowed to four percent in the third quarter from 5.5 percent in the previous quarter.

The subpar growth is mainly attributed to government spending, which plummeted in the period since many infrastructure projects were put on hold or are now in limbo.

While this was a consequential effect of the corruption, Ongpin said it was not a direct result of the corruption itself.

“So the indicators for [this] year, macroeconomic indicators at least, are all still pretty good,” he said in a television interview last week.

“We've had a year of low inflation. Well, before the corruption scandal, the highest GDP growth in the region. And, you know, business is doing okay,” he added.

Ongpin said the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi), which slid 7.29 percent by the end of 2025, suffered primarily because investors held back amid the corruption scandal and weak GDP performance.

“I think they've learned their lesson and they're going to be a little more aggressive in 2026,” he said, noting a potential rebound for the year.

These positive outlooks are banking on the outcome of this year’s national budget, which remains under review by the executive branch.

For this year’s budget deliberations, the Marcos administration introduced reforms to make the process more transparent, especially by opening up the bicameral conference committee to the public.

MBC was among the first groups to call out the government in 2024 after it flagged the committee's adjustments to the 2025 national budget, including allocating more funding for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

DPWH is the main agency embroiled in the multi-billion-peso flood control scandal.

Since the budget process is now more transparent, Ongpin said the group has observed that funds allocated to infrastructure projects are now being redirected to unconditional cash transfers.

“So what they're trying to do is worm their way into discretionary social welfare, which is pork barrel, basically handouts,” he said. “And we're saying, the Supreme Court has declared this illegal. You can't have lump sum discretionary funds.”

MBC has long urged the government to end the practice of unconditional cash transfers, or commonly known as “ayuda,” and instead prioritize conditional cash transfers such as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

In addressing corruption, MBC joined 19 other business groups last month in calling for the creation of an anti-corruption body with full investigative and prosecutorial powers.

The groups argued that the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), tasked with investigating the flood control mess, is essentially functioning only as an advisory body rather than fulfilling its supposed mandate to curb corruption, as it lacks the power to “act decisively on its own.”