The House of Representatives passed the P6.79-trillion budget for 2026, including a debated P249-billion in unprogrammed funds. Critics call it a ‘shadow fund.’ In a related move, the OVP budget was slashed. Expect fierce debate in the Senate.
MANILA – In a marathon session marked by political friction and constitutional scrutiny, the House of Representatives passed the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026 on second reading this Friday, October 10. The approved version retains a contentious P249-billion allocation in unprogrammed appropriations, a massive fiscal cushion critics have labeled a “presidential pork barrel” and a “shadow fund” ripe for abuse.
The session saw a dramatic clash over the nature of government spending, pitting the administration’s fiscal strategy against opposition claims of constitutional circumvention.
“Necessary” Funding or Fiscal Loophole?
The core of the controversy erupted when Akbayan Representative Chel Diokno moved to strip the P249 billion from the House’s version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB). His motion was swiftly rejected in a voice vote, underscoring the majority’s firm stance.
In a spirited defense, House Appropriations Chairperson Mikaela Suansing argued the unprogrammed funds are not discretionary pork but essential capital for foreign-assisted infrastructure projects that missed the deadline for inclusion in the programmed funds.
“These are not phantom projects. They are concrete commitments to our international partners for vital infrastructure,” Suansing asserted from the plenary floor. “We need to fund them. Otherwise, we would be reneging on our international commitments and stalling our own development.”
However, budget watchdogs and opposition figures immediately challenged this justification. They point to a constitutional principle: while Congress can reallocate items, it cannot exceed the total amount proposed by the President in the National Expenditure Program. Critics allege that by shifting billions from programmed to unprogrammed appropriations, the administration is creating a massive off-books fund that bypasses this very ceiling.
“Call it what you want, but this is a classic case of fiscal engineering to create a multi-billion-peso kitty outside the normal scrutiny of programmed funds,” a veteran economist, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told this publication. “It gives the executive immense latitude, blurring the lines of accountability.”
OVP Budget Slashed in “Deliberative Discipline” Move
Adding a layer of political intrigue to the fiscal battle, the House simultaneously wielded its power of the purse against the Office of the Vice President (OVP). In a bold move, lawmakers slashed the OVP’s proposed 2026 budget from P902 million to P733 million—the agency’s current funding level.
The motion was introduced by Mamamayang Liberal Representative Leila de Lima, who framed the cut as a matter of legislative accountability and respect for the budget process. De Lima cited Vice President Sara Duterte’s repeated absence from the plenary deliberations intended to scrutinize her office’s spending.
“This reduction is not punitive; it is deliberative discipline,” De Lima stated. “The power of the purse is a sacred duty of this House. When a key official consistently bypasses the opportunity to justify their budget to the Filipino people, it undermines the very foundation of our democratic process.”
The move is seen as a significant political rebuke to the Vice President, highlighting the ongoing tensions within the ruling coalition. The OVP has yet to issue an official statement regarding the budget cut.
With the second reading hurdle cleared, the budget bill moves to a third and final reading in the House before transmission to the Senate. The upper chamber is expected to conduct its own rigorous scrutiny, where the debates over unprogrammed appropriations and the OVP’s funding are certain to be reignited.
The passage of the 2026 GAB sets the stage for a protracted battle over the soul of the national budget: whether it will be a tool of transparent, program-driven development, or a instrument of political leverage, shielded by controversial accounting mechanisms. The coming weeks in the Senate will determine the final shape of the nation’s financial blueprint for 2026.
A New Speaker, An Old Scandal: House Nears Passage of P6.79-T 2026 Budget Under Cloud of Reform
The proposed P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026 is now on the cusp of clearing the House of Representatives, poised to become the first spending bill ushered into law under the gavel of a new Speaker, Bojie Dy. Yet, its passage is shadowed by the specter of a massive corruption scandal that felled his predecessor and a stern presidential warning against the very graft that has long plagued the budget process.
The chamber approved the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) on second reading this Friday, setting up a swift third and final reading next week. This legislative milestone marks a pivotal test for Speaker Dy, who ascended to the country’s fourth-highest office following the dramatic resignation of former Speaker Martin Romualdez.
Romualdez’s exit from the speakership was a political earthquake, triggered by his alleged involvement in the “flood control corruption scandal.” The issue, which exploded into a national talking point after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s July State of the Nation Address (SONA), alleged the systematic siphoning of billions from public infrastructure funds.
In that same landmark speech, President Marcos issued a direct and public warning to the legislature, insisting he would not sign any spending bill “not fully aligned with the administration’s programs.” This was widely interpreted as a presidential line in the sand against the traditional, and often opaque, practice of congressional allocations and insertions that have long been criticized as conduits for pork barrel.
A Test of Reforms Under a New Regime
The House leadership, now under Speaker Dy, has publicly committed to a number of reforms in the budget process. This commitment comes amid enduring and scathing criticism over how the legislative branch handled the 2025 budget, which opposition figures and civil society groups alleged was “mangled” by lawmakers and dubbed by critics as “the most corrupt in history.”
“The House is turning a new leaf,” a senior lawmaker from the majority coalition claimed on condition of anonymity. “The Speaker is acutely aware that all eyes are on him to deliver a clean, transparent, and constitutional budget. The Romualdez scandal and the President’s ultimatum have changed the game.”
However, skepticism remains high. The current 2026 GAB retains the highly controversial P249 billion in “unprogrammed appropriations,” a fund critics deride as a loophole that allows the very insertions the President warned against. While the administration insists these are for vital foreign-assisted projects, budget watchdogs argue it is a way to circumvent constitutional spending ceilings.
“The true test of reform isn’t in the press releases, but in the pages of the budget itself,” said a lead convenor of the Budget Watch NGO. “Retaining hundreds of billions in nebulous, unprogrammed funds, while simultaneously touting reform, creates a credibility chasm that the House must bridge.”
The coming week’s final reading will be more than a procedural formality; it will be the first major verdict on Speaker Dy’s leadership and the House’s ability to self-clean. With the Senate waiting in the wings, promising its own rigorous scrutiny, the 2026 budget is shaping up to be a high-stakes battle over the integrity of the nation’s purse, testing the resolve of a new Speaker, the power of a President’s word, and the enduring shadow of a scandal that reshaped the House.
House Touts Budget Reform Amid Pork Barrel Allegations
MANILA – In a year defined by a seismic corruption scandal, the House of Representatives is navigating its most delicate balancing act yet: championing a new era of budget transparency while presiding over a massive P250-billion realignment that critics argue is the very essence of the old, patronage-driven politics it claims to be reforming.
As the P6.793-trillion 2026 national budget stands one step from final passage, the chamber has taken visible strides to shed its reputation for backroom dealings. Most significantly, it has abolished the long-standing, secretive “small committee”—a shadowy group of lawmakers that traditionally hammered out last-minute budget amendments behind closed doors after the second reading.
In its place, the House established a Budget Amendment Review Sub-committee (BARSc), which held its meetings in public, live-streamed proceedings. House leaders have also boasted of the unprecedented accreditation and participation of civil society organizations (CSOs) in the process.
“We are committed to a new standard of openness,” a House leadership spokesperson stated. “The live-streamed BARSc and the inclusion of public watchdogs are concrete proofs of our commitment to reform.”
“Tokenistic” Engagement and a P250-Billion Test
However, the promised sunshine is being dismissed by many watchdogs as a superficial glow. Accredited CSOs have reported that their engagement has been largely “tokenistic,” citing a litany of procedural hurdles: consultations were scarce, notices for critical hearings were given at the last minute, speaking time was severely limited, and a promised real-time dashboard to track amendments never materialized.
“The doors are open, but we’re given a seat in the corner and told to be quiet,” lamented one CSO representative who requested anonymity for fear of being disinvited. “The architecture of participation exists, but not the spirit.”
The central test of the House’s reform credentials came with the BARSc’s primary task: handling over P250 billion in flood control funds that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) surprisingly asked to be cut from its original request. This massive sum, which included P3 billion in duplicate or entirely completed projects, became a pot of money for reallocation.
Here, the House’s actions have ignited fierce controversy. While the BARSc did allocate a significant P56 billion to the Department of Education—pushing its total budget to a historic P1.28 trillion—it also redirected nearly a third of the P250 billion into programs critics deride as classic “pork”: the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS), TUPAD, and medical assistance programs.
These programs, while providing direct aid to constituents, are notoriously vulnerable to politicization, often distributed by lawmakers in a manner that critics say promotes patronage rather than systematic development.
“Abolishing a secret committee only to redirect billions into discretionary funds is not reform; it’s rebranding,” argued a budget analyst. “You’ve replaced a shadowy process with a transparent one for creating patronage resources. The public can now watch the sausage being made, but the ingredients remain the same.”
A Deliberative Pace, But to What End?
In a break from recent tradition, the House did not pass the budget on second and third reading in a single day, a practice enabled by the President’s certification of urgency. This slower pace was touted as evidence of more thoughtful deliberation.
Yet, with the final reading scheduled for Monday, October 13, the fundamental question remains unanswered. Has the House, under the cloud of scandal and a presidential warning, genuinely turned a corner? Or has it simply engineered a more sophisticated public relations strategy to legitimize the same old political calculus?
The true verdict on the 2026 budget will not be delivered in the plenary hall on Monday, but in the months and years to come, as billions in “assistance” funds are disbursed and the nation judges whether this budget truly served the public interest, or the interests of those who wield its power.
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