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December 25, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — There will be no fresh national budget in the first few days of 2026 as President Marcos is expected to sign the proposed P6.793-trillion outlay for next year in the first week of January, possibly on Jan. 5.
The Marcos administration had wanted the appropriations bill signed into law by year-end to avoid reenacting the 2025 budget, a situation seen to hamper the implementation of vital projects and stall economic growth.
However, an amendment to the legislative calendar moved the ratification of the 2026 appropriations measure to Dec. 29, only two days before the end of the year.
On Tuesday, Executive Secretary Ralph Recto told The STAR that it may take a week to go over the budget “with a fine-tooth comb.”
“First week of January,” Recto said in a text message to reporters yesterday when asked about the schedule of the signing of next year’s outlay.
Recto previously said a reenacted budget for a week would not affect government operations.
“It will be better for everyone that Malacañang review the budget carefully,” the executive secretary said.
According to Presidential Communications Secretary Dave Gomez, Marcos is mobilizing a team that will immediately review the amounts and provisions agreed upon in the bicameral conference committee as well as the amendments made from the National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the executive branch to Congress. He said the review would ensure that taxpayers’ money would be put to good use.
During his fourth State of the Nation Address in July, Marcos vowed to veto a budget bill not fully aligned with the NEP even if the government ends up operating under a reenacted outlay.
Last year, Marcos vetoed P194 billion worth of items in the 2025 budget, saying they are not attuned with the priorities of his administration.
He had removed more than 180 public works projects and 15 unprogrammed appropriations from this year’s outlay, citing the need to ensure that the country’s limited resources are in line with the government’s priorities and development targets.
According to Senate finance committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian, delaying the signing of the national budget until Jan. 5, 2026 would ensure the executive has enough time to thoroughly review the proposed outlay.
Gatchalian noted that submitting the budget to Malacañang on Dec. 29 would leave the executive with limited time to examine the more than 4,000 pages of the enrolled copies before the end of the year.
“The prudent course of action is to move the signing to Jan. 5 to ensure that every provision is thoroughly reviewed,” he told reporters.
Under the Constitution, the President has 30 days to sign or veto the national budget after its submission.
Meanwhile, Gatchalian on Monday urged continued public and institutional vigilance over government projects, stressing that efforts to curb corruption should extend beyond the approval of the national budget and into its actual implementation.
“We have reconciled the numbers, but vigilance must continue from budgeting to implementation if we are to purge corruption from the bureaucracy,” he said following the approval of the bicameral conference committee report on the proposed 2026 national budget.
At the same time, Sen. Francis Pangilinan yesterday welcomed the inclusion of a P1-billion budget in the Department of Agriculture (DA)’s 2026 outlay for biosecurity enforcement program to prevent smuggling and contain animal diseases.- Neil Jayson Servallos
