MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) yesterday presented to President Marcos the P6.793-trillion National Expenditure Program for 2026. The NEP will be transmitted to the House of Representatives today.
The proposed budget, which is 7.4 percent higher than this year’s P6.326-trillion appropriation, was handed by Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman to President Marcos during a ceremony at Malacañang.
In a statement, the Presidential Communications Office said the NEP would prioritize essentials that uphold fundamental rights, such as the right to quality and accessible education, strengthened health care systems and services, expanded social protection programs and food security.
Marcos approved the spending program last month.
The top 10 priority sectors in the President’s budget are education, public works, health, defense, interior and local government, agriculture, social welfare, transportation, judiciary and labor and employment.
By expense class, the highest allocation will go to maintenance and other operating expenses at P2.639 trillion – chiefly for bankrolling the implementation of government programs and projects, according to a recent DBM statement.
Personnel services expenditures will get P1.908 trillion, covering the salaries and other personnel services benefits of government workers, including the requirements for creation and filling of posts.
Capital outlays will be provided with P1.296 trillion to fund priority infrastructure projects, while financial expenses will get P950 billion.
National government agencies will have an outlay of P4.305 trillion or 63.4 percent, while local governments will get nearly 20 percent at P1.350 trillion, excluding locally implemented projects funded through national agencies.
Government-owned or -controlled corporations will have an allocation of P188.3 billion in the form of subsidy or equity support and net lending assistance.
Also yesterday, lawmakers presented to Marcos the signed Government Optimization Act, a measure designed to optimize the government’s operations, improve its service delivery and remove redundancies or overlapping functions.
Republic Act No. 12231 or the Government Optimization Act was signed into law last Aug. 4. It grants the President the authority to optimize the operations of agencies in the executive branch.
DBM warns vs budget reenactment
As Congress prepares to deliberate on the national appropriation for next year, a DBM official has again sounded the alarm over a reenacted budget, saying it could stall new projects, setting back development plans and slowing the country’s growth momentum.
“We do not want a reenacted budget because it will delay our growth. Yes, it will delay our growth, and if the budget is reenacted, agencies will be forced to work with allocations that do not match their needs for this specific year,” a DBM official who requested anonymity told The STAR yesterday.
The official said Congress should follow the NEP as submitted, to avoid partial or full budget reenactments that could result in outdated spending allocations.
The Philippine economy expanded in the second quarter to 5.5 percent, slightly faster than the 5.4 percent recorded in the first quarter of this year, or within the government’s target of 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent.
In June, the interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee trimmed its growth target from six to eight percent.
“You cannot implement new projects because the budget is reenacted. So your new projects, the ones you have pre-proposed, cannot be released since the budget is only reenacted,” the official said.
Reenacting the budget, the official added, would have adverse impacts on salary increases for teachers and government workers as well as on subsidies for the military and the police.
Earlier, DBM’s Pangandaman said subdued government spending due to election ban on projects may have tempered second quarter growth.
“The quarter where there are bans on infrastructure projects and other government programs is a bit lower because we know that government spending makes a significant contribution to our GDP growth,” Pangandaman said.
Not House’s fault
Meanwhile, House Deputy Speaker and Antipolo City Rep. Ronaldo Puno said the chamber had nothing to do with the P74-billion PhilHealth realignment or P12-billion cut in the funds of the Department of Education (DepED) in the 2025 budget.
“The House made the proposed budget. It was approved by the House of Representatives. Now, in that budget, which is a public document that you can get in the secretariat, the PhilHealth budget was retained,” Puno said at a press conference.
“The budget of the Department of Education was not cut in the House version. In fact, it is high. What was cut was the budget of the House, public works budget. You can check that,” Puno added.
He said one only has to compare the House version of the budget with the one that eventually became the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2025 to realize that the changes did not originate from the chamber.
“That is what was sent to the Senate. Now, the GAA that finally came out, the PhilHealth fund was removed, the budget of the DepEd was reduced and the budget of the DPWH was increased,” Puno said.
With the opening of the new budget season, he said his bloc in the National Unity Party (NUP) will not proceed with scrutinizing the 2026 spending bill until the adjustments in the 2025 law are fully explained.
“Now that we are in the budget season, even if it is the 2025 budget, we in our party agreed that we will not start the scrutiny of the 2026 budget until we are enlightened on all the mystery that happened in the 2025 budget,” Puno said.
“Now, we want to know who changed it? How it happened? Who removed it? How the PhilHealth budget was removed? Because I know this is not from the House of Representatives,” he stressed.
Puno raised the same questions on the DepEd budget cuts, pointing out that the House version had bigger allocation for DepEd and smaller for the DPWH.
“We cut the DPWH budget, but who increased that? I know that it was not increased here because when it reached the Senate, it was reduced,” Puno said.
“We want also to know if Sen. Tito Sotto’s claims that all of it goes to the Senate and the leadership of the Senate is true. We want to know because it is the House that is being blamed,” he said.
Puno said that any accounting should also reveal beneficiaries of fund movements, specifically
by matching agency submissions with enacted items.
Asked about establishing liability, Puno said fact-finding comes first, but emphasized that mechanisms exist that can help address possible wrongdoings by members of the Senate.
“Now, I’m sure the Senate has its own processes on how they will discipline their own members if their members need to be disciplined. Beyond that, you know, there are the normal judicial procedures that can be entered into whenever there is wrongdoing,” he said. — Jose Rodel Clapano