3 months ago
37
Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!
Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.
Visit Suniway.ph to learn
Marc Jayson Cayabyab - The Philippine Star
December 27, 2025 | 12:00am
Senate finance committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian speaks at the telecasted bicameral conference committee session on the 2026 national budget on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025.
Senate PRIB
MANILA, Philippines — The 2026 General Appropriations Bill would pass the scrutiny of President Marcos, Senate finance committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian said yesterday as he expressed confidence on the bicameral conference committee-approved GAB.
In a dzBB interview, Gatchalian said the Senate and House of Representatives had a “meeting of minds” in reconciling their differing versions of the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget.
He said even though the bicameral conference committee-approved GAB is yet to be ratified – set for plenary session on Dec. 29 – and transmitted to Malacañang, his technical staff and the executive are coordinating to review the contents of the budget and ensure it is aligned with the national government’s priorities.
“I am confident the budget would be passed, because we had a parallel review with the executive branch to review the budget even before it is transmitted to them,” Gatchalian said.
“This means that there is a triple review of the budget,” he added.
To safeguard the budget from abuse, the Senate pushed for removing the lumpsum funds under the unprogrammed appropriation item called Strengthening Assistance for Government Infrastructure and Social Program (SAGIP), Gatchalian said.
The item was deleted after it was misused for fund flood control projects which were either substandard or nonexistent.
“We had ensured that past infrastructure anomalies would no longer happen again in this budget, so that taxpayers’ money would no longer be wasted,” Gatchalian said.
He earlier said the executive’s plan to tentatively set the signing of the budget on Jan. 5 or anytime within the first week of the month would ensure that the President has enough time to scrutinize the enrolled copy of the GAB, composed of over 4,000 pages.
“We acknowledge that submitting the budget to the executive on Dec. 29 is two days before the New Year, and the executive needs sufficient time to review the 4,000+ page enrolled copies of the budget,” he said.
