Marcos: Bicam on budget will be livestreamed

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said Wednesday that the bicameral conference committee meeting for the national budget would be livestreamed.

At a press conference, Marcos said he already discussed the matter with Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Speaker Faustino "Bojie" Dy III.

“And to further encourage transparency, I intend to livestream the bicam. So, that's what I told them already. There is no small committee,” Marcos said.

“We will livestream the entire process so that if there are questionable, shall we say, insertions or additions or all that, it will also be clear who moved – who made those changes or who proposed those changes so that people will know,” he added.

On Monday, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading its version of the proposed P6.793 trillion national budget for 2026 under House Bill 4058, with realignments that increased allocations to the education sector to an unprecedented P1.28 trillion.

The House version of the General Appropriations Bill realigned the entire P255 billion of the Department of Public Works and Highways' initial proposed budget for locally-funded flood control projects after the President called out anomalous flood control projects.

At this point, Marcos thinks that there is no need to veto the budget, noting that he is involved in its preparation from the beginning. According to the President, there is no project there that is not aligned with the priorities of the administration.

''I think that – I am hoping and I am very confident that that’s not going to be necessary simply because that we have been involved – I have been involved in – as you can imagine, I have been involved in detail on the preparation, especially in the House of the budget,'' Marcos said.

''And that as far as we have been able to examine, there are no – there are no projects that are listed there, there are no items that are listed there that are outside of the socio-economic development plan of the Philippines and all the plans derived from that, i.e, kung saan po pupunta ‘yung FMR, kung saan pupunta ‘yung school building, kung saan pupunta -- all of these are all part of the general plan (where the FMR will go, the school buildings -- all of these are all part of the general plan),'' he added.

''So, I do not think as… From the last time that I saw the last version of the budget, wala naman akong nakita na humihiwalay doon sa plano ng national government kaya hindi siguro kailangan mag-veto (I don't see any item that is not aligned with the plan of the national government so there's no need to veto),'' Marcos said.

Budget process

Still, Marcos said the budget process is not yet finished so he has to check whether the version of the Senate, and eventually the ratified version after the bicameral conference committee, would still be aligned in the priorities of his administration.

''Pero tingnan natin kasi hindi pa tapos ang proseso. Dadaan pa sa Senado ‘yan, dadaan pa sa bicam, at titingnan natin – titiyakin natin na ganoon pa rin ang sinusundan na proseso na dapat nasa ilalim lahat ng ating plano para sa national – na galing sa national government,'' he said.

(Let's see because the process is not yet finished. It will go through the Senate, the bicam, and we will see, we will check if it follows the process in which it must be aligned with the plans of the national government.)

During his fourth SONA, Marcos made an unprecedented declaration that the government would operate under a reenacted budget in 2026, warning that he will veto a proposed budget bill that will not be in harmony with his administration’s programs and priorities.

The 2025 General Appropriations Act had its fair share of criticisms amid claims of insertions made by legislators during the bicam for cash aid programs such as AKAP and TUPAD.

The President signed the P6.326-trillion GAA for 2025 in December 2024, but vetoed P194 billion worth of line items that were not consistent with his administration's priorities. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News