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Neil Jayson Servallos - The Philippine Star
December 10, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate yesterday approved the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026 on third and final reading, sending the spending plan to a bicameral conference committee that is expected to convene on Dec. 12.
All 17 senators present voted in favor of the General Appropriations Bill, with no objections or abstentions.
The chamber also registered no further questions on the measure before the vote.
Senators who weren’t present when the voting began were Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Imee Marcos, Ronald dela Rosa, JV Ejercito and siblings Mark and Camille Villar.
The 2026 budget – one of the largest in the country’s history – strengthens key government programs aimed at addressing public needs while tightening transparency and accountability safeguards throughout the budgeting process.
The bicameral panel, composed of Senate and House representatives, will reconcile differences between the two chambers’ versions from Dec. 12 to 14.
Senators in the chamber’s contingent to the bicameral panel include finance committee chairman Sherwin Gatchalian, deputy majority leader Ejercito, Loren Legarda, Francis Pangilinan, Erwin Tulfo, Jinggoy Estrada, Bong Go, Pia Cayetano, Marcos and the Villars.
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was initially designated to the Senate contingent but withdrew.
Gatchalian said the Senate version significantly boosts allocations for classrooms, school feeding and state universities and colleges (SUCs).
Education spending now stands at P1.37 trillion, or P91.24 billion higher than the House version, with funds to build more than 24,000 new classrooms and expand the feeding program to 200 school days for 4.8 million learners.
The chamber also raised the budget for SUCs to help accommodate an estimated 168,000 qualified students who could not previously enroll due to limited capacity.
Health programs likewise received substantial increases with Zero Balance Billing for patients in Department of Health hospitals seeing a major expansion, including a P1-billion pilot for ZBB in select LGU hospitals.
Specialty hospitals – Heart Center, National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Children’s Medical Center and Lung Center – received an additional P6.9 billion for operations, equipment and patient assistance.
The Senate also increased the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund by P14.82 billion to support recovery in communities hit by typhoons and other calamities, including shelter, education, health services, agriculture rehabilitation and social protection.
For infrastructure, the chamber trimmed the Department of Public Works and Highways’ budget by nearly P54 billion after applying updated construction cost adjustment factors based on new price data.
The Senate also required that all projects carry complete station numbers and coordinates to prevent ghost or vague entries.
Gatchalian said the amendments were meant to strengthen public services while reinforcing transparency and discipline throughout the budget process, which is now headed to the bicameral conference committee for final consolidation.
Bicam livestream
As Congress prepares for the bicameral conference, Senate President Vicente Sotto III rejected talks of any attempt to block the livestreaming of the bicameral conference on the 2026 national budget, saying the Senate will not agree to a closed-door meeting.
While he has not been informed of any opposition, Sotto addressed reports that some House members were raising objections to livestreaming.
“Earlier, I was with Speaker Bodjie (Dy), he did not mention anything to me. We won’t stand for it, because that was the order of the President,” he said.
House appropriations committee chair Mikaela Suansing expressed the lower chamber’s readiness to sit down with their Senate counterparts in the bicam, and confirmed that she already spoke with Gatchalian about the livestreaming of the proceedings.
“The House has always been very firm on our commitment to opening the bicam proceedings,” she said in a statement.
Lawmakers aim to finalize the harmonized budget by Dec. 13, with hopes of signing the bicam report by Dec. 16.
The Senate is aiming to have the 2026 national budget signed by President Marcos on Dec. 29.
More PhilHealth funds
Meanwhile, a group of health advocates yesterday said they would demand that legislators increase funds for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) to be able to cover the restoration of the P60 billion as well as the required premium contributions.
“We will pursue this issue to ensure that Universal Health Care (UHC) gets back on track and closely monitor this in 2026,” Dr. Juan Antonio Perez III, co-chair of the Medical Action Group, said.
The Supreme Court earlier ordered Congress and the executive to include the P60 billion to be returned to PhilHealth in the 2026 General Appropriations Act.
Perez noted that the SC decision also implies executive action on those who engaged in unconstitutional acts, including the Department of Finance, Department of Budget and Management and the PhilHealth Board.
“They cannot be trusted to implement the UHC law that they sought to circumvent,” he said. — Rhodina Villanueva, Delon Porcalla
