Four-hour wait, private bicam talks delay DPWH budget deliberation

December 16, 2025 | 9:11pm

MANILA, Philippines — It took the bicameral conference committee four hours to decide whether to take up proposed changes to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) budget on Tuesday, December 16.

In the end, Senate and House conferees agreed to defer deliberations on the DPWH budget to Wednesday, December 17.

The delay followed the Senate’s decision to postpone the bicameral hearing on Monday, December 15, even as the House was prepared to proceed. The postponement followed the DPWH's appeal to restore P45 billion that the Senate had cut during its own deliberations over overpriced materials found in infrastructure projects.

Away from the cameras

The hearing set for 4 p.m. on Tuesday was further pushed back as lawmakers held private discussions on the sidelines, attempting to iron out differences that could have been addressed during the hearing itself. This is outside the public sessions, which were recorded live on streaming for the first time.

Senate Finance Committee Chairperson Sherwin Gatchalian and House Appropriations Chair Mikaela Suansing were seen having one-on-one talks at the session hall of the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).

Sen. Loren Legarda and members of the House contingent were also spotted holding discussions in a small circle before the hearing.

In an ambush interview, Sen. Kiko Pangilinan said the Senate has yet to receive the necessary and specific data for recomputation from the DPWH. 

Gatchalian, who proposed to tackle the budget of other agencies first, said his team will work overnight to finish the recomputation of infrastructure projects based on the revised cost of materials provided by the DPWH.

Suansing concurred with Gatchalian's suggestion, allowing the bicam committee to deliberate instead on the Department of Agrarian Reform's and Department of Interior and Local Government's budgets.

Tighter deadline for ratification

The bicam committee is on its third day of hearings, and Congress only has until December 23 to ratify a signed bicameral conference committee report.

Should it fail to approve and ratify the 2026 General Appropriations Bill, the country risks facing a reenacted budget. In other words, if the P6.793 trillion budget bill is not ratified by Congress and signed by the president within the year, the government will be forced to use this year's budget for 2026.

Agencies will have to operate on the same amounts and new projects will likely not be funded until a new budget is approved.

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