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MANILA, Philippines — The bicameral conference committee on the proposed 2026 national budget approved the funding of at least 20 government agencies on Tuesday night, as lawmakers from both chambers move to wrap up deliberations and finalize computations ahead of the New Year.
Senate committee on finance chair Sherwin Gatchalian said the panel aimed to complete its work yesterday, with the remaining tasks focused on consolidating the reconciled budget both “physically and computation-wise” before transmitting the measure to Malacañang.
Gatchalian said he and House appropriations committee chair Mikaela Angela Suansing discussed scheduling concerns, noting that the ratification process could be complicated as lawmakers begin their holiday breaks.
The senator said quorum is a bigger challenge for the House, which has 318 members, compared to the Senate which has 24.
For her part, Suansing said the bicam approved the budgets of around 21 agencies on Tuesday, leaving about 11 agencies still to be tackled.
Suansing said both chambers are coordinating closely to avoid a reenacted budget and to give President Marcos sufficient time to review the spending measure.
“We are doing everything, we are ensuring that the President will be able to sign the budget before this New Year,” she said.
Among the agencies whose budgets were approved during the third day of deliberations were the Office of the President, Office of the Vice President, Congress, the Departments of Agrarian Reform; Budget and Management (DBM), the Interior and Local Government; National Defense; Transportation; Economy, Planning and Development; Energy; Environment and Natural Resources; Finance; Foreign Affairs; Human Settlements and Urban Development; Information and Communications Technology; Justice; Labor and Employment; Migrant Workers; Science and Technology – excluding the Philippine Science High School; Social Welfare and Development and the National Irrigation Administration.
No Senate ‘pork’
Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson yesterday rejected claims that the upper chamber inserted a P17.9-billion pork barrel allocation in the proposed 2026 national budget, saying the amount referred to realignments intended to increase the subsistence allowance of uniformed personnel.
Lacson said the funds were earmarked for the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Fire Protection and the Philippine Coast Guard and not for discretionary projects.
He dismissed the allegations raised by Rep. Antonio Tinio, saying the realignments came from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF) and constituted institutional amendments that would not benefit any individual lawmaker.
Tinio earlier alleged that the Senate version of the 2026 General Appropriations Bill contained P17.9 billion in so-called “LGU pork” and that benefits for rank-and-file government workers were cut to fund it.
Gatchalian also rejected Tinio’s claims, explaining that increases under the Local Government Support Fund were intended to strengthen basic services at the local level, including health facilities, classrooms and disaster preparedness and should not be treated as discretionary funds for lawmakers.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers condemned the Senate’s move to slash P55 billion from the MPBF and divert it to LGU discretionary funds.
However, Gatchalian clarified that reductions to the MPBF did not translate to cuts in government workers’ benefits, noting that the DBM has described the fund as a contingency reserve rather than a direct allocation for salaries or allowances.
Breakdown of FMRs
At the same time, Sen. Francis Pangilinan urged the bicameral conference committee to provide a detailed breakdown of P8 billion worth of farm-to-market roads (FMR) in the proposed 2026 national budget.
Pangilinan, a member of the Senate bicam contingent and chair of the Senate committee on agriculture, food and agrarian reform, wanted an explanation on the P8-billion FMR projects he had flagged for being vague and unspecified.
While the Senate version of the General Appropriations Bill allocated P16 billion for FMR, the bicam hiked it to P33 billion, which includes P8 billion worth of projects without coordinates.
