House to prioritize agency-backed amendments in 2026 budget

The House of Representatives will prioritize the inclusion of amendments backed by government agencies in the proposed 2026 national budget while also hearing out parochial concerns, House appropriations panel chairperson Mikaela Suansing said Tuesday.

Suansing said it is understandable for House members to push for government projects to address the needs of their constituents "but on the part of the House, given the limited fiscal space, what we [will] prioritize are institutional amendments."

"Parochial amendments are for the needs of a particular locality, while institutional amendments emanate from the [government agencies] themselves. That is what we are looking at,” she told reporters.

However, she said, it does not mean that the amendments to be put forward by House members will be readily dismissed.

The presence of budget watchdogs and public availability of committee level proceedings, Suansing said, will ensure that the amendments to be included in the national budget will be meritorious whether they are suggested by government agencies or members of Congress.

"The deliberation on the new House subcommittee on budget amendments review will be available to the public, including via livestream. So anybody who will sit on this committee and put forward amendments and how will it be resolved will be known by the public,” the lawmaker said.

She was referring to the new House appropriations subpanel in charge of budget amendments, replacing the small committee which used to be a tight-knit unit composed of lawmakers collating amendments proposed by House members after  the budget is approved at plenary level.

“Because the deliberations are transparent, maiiwasan na po talaga natin 'yung pagkakaroon ng mga insertions na iintindihan naman namin na 'yun 'yung pinagmumulan ng pangamba ng ating mga kababayan,” Suansing added.

(Because the deliberations are transparent, we will be able to avoid insertions that cause distrust among the public.)

In the same interview, Suansing said President Ferdinand Marcos,Jr.’s statement during his fourth State of the Nation Address that he is willing to delay the signing of the proposed national budget if it does not align with the administration’s priorities should not be viewed as an attempt to clip Congress’ power of the purse.

“The statement of the President does not undermine the power of the purse of Congress because the the President has very specific priorities in terms of what social services, what projects he would like prioritized. That is the alignment that the President is asking Congress to focus on,”  she said.

“I believe it is not undermining the House but rather its a guidance...that please, ensure that the administration’s priority programs are taken cared of. And we saw that the President’s priority is human capital development, including education, labor, and health. For our part, those are also the programs that we will support because human capital development is very  important in ensuring our country's economic future for many many generations,” she added.

In a separate statement, Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco welcomed the abolition of the small committee which he earlier flagged for supposed unlawful intervention in the budget process.

“We thank the House committee on appropriations for heeding our call. The small committee was not transparent, so we must abolish it. The fact that they agreed to abolish the small committee proves that I was correct,” he said.

Still, Tiangco insisted that all individual amendments of the House members should be discussed in a plenary session.

However, he emphasized that the removal of the small committee is just the first step toward promoting transparency in budget deliberations.

“All individual amendments must be discussed in plenary before the approval of the House General Appropriations Bill on second reading. A lengthy line item list [of amendments] is not an excuse. If that is the case, we must work overtime,” Tiangco said in  a statement.

“Trabaho namin ‘yan. Kahit gaano kahirap, dapat naming gampanan (That is our job so we must do it no matter how hard it is). No ifs and buts," he added. —AOL, GMA Integrated News