The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) was warned on Monday, September 1 not to become an “accessory” again by prioritizing flood control projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) over the country’s education sector in the P6.79 trillion national budget for 2026. ...
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said on Saturday, Aug. 30, that he already flagged questionable allocations in the budget request of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for 2026, similar to what Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson had already exposed. In an interview with DWIZ, Gatchalian...
Senator Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri said on Friday, Aug. 29, that the national budget is being utilized for what he called a "money-making racket", a difference that he noted when it came to their role of scrutinizing it. According to Zubiri, when it comes to the budget process, parliamentary...
The national government’s fiscal deficit widened to ₱784.4 billion in the first seven months of the year, a 22 percent jump compared with ₱642.8 billion in the same period last year, even as the budget gap narrowed in July alone. Still, the year-to-date fiscal deficit remains “well within...
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)+3 policymakers, including the Philippines, are urged to balance near-term spending with long-term fiscal discipline as shrinking fiscal space and rising debt costs stress the need for consolidation to meet climate- and aging-related demands, according...
Urging full transparency and greater investment in education and human capital, an advocacy group on Saturday, August 23, called on lawmakers to prioritize Filipinos over infrastructure as they tackle the 2026 budget. “We must allocate our resources where they matter most, because every peso...
Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito has slammed what he said are “obviously political” cuts in the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) budget for promotions in recent years. Ejercito said that due to the budget cuts the Philippines’ competitiveness in the global tourism market suffered. “In...
Government agencies posted a 94-percent utilization rate of their cash allocations in the first seven months of 2025, unchanged from a year ago, but the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) continued to trail behind. Latest data from the...
Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said it has already ordered government agencies to submit their catch-up plans following its slowest spending in three quarters in the second quarter. “We already asked each agency to submit to us their catch-up plan,”...
Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero has recommended that governors and city mayors be invited to the Senate’s upcoming public hearings on the proposed 2026 national budget. Escudero said he has made the suggestion to Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance,...
The government has programmed ₱419.9 billion in infrastructure spending for the third quarter, the biggest quarterly infra disbursement for 2025, at a time when allegedly fraudulent flood control projects are taking the spotlight amid concerns about some wasteful and corruption-laden public...
Senator Erwin Tulfo on Tuesday, August 19 pressed government officials to explain numerous flood control projects poured into provinces that are not even among the country’s most flood-prone areas. Citing a list released by President Marcos, Tulfo noted that Cebu received 414 flood control...
