No more bicam insertions in 2026 budget — Lacson

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson on Saturday said the chamber's leadership has committed to blocking any form of insertions in the P6.793 trillion proposed 2026 national budget, preventing a repeat of the 2025 spending plan he described as "corrupt to the core" due to questionable allocations.

Lacson, chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, said the upper chamber is taking steps to ensure tighter scrutiny and full transparency in the budget process, including the livestreaming of the bicameral conference committee deliberations.

“The strongest reform introduced this year is the rule that the bicam will not allow any item that does not appear in the Senate or House version,” he said.

“That eliminates insertions and backroom dealings. It simplifies the work and can even shorten the proceedings,” he added.

Lacson was alluding to the P100 billion fund insertions in the 2025 General Appropriations Act, which were added by lawmakers during the bicameral conference committee on the approved House and Senate versions of the spending bill.

No record has come out on who was responsible for the insertions, as the bicam hearings, which were often converted into a meeting of the "small committee" composed of only a few members, were done behind closed doors and without a transcription of the minutes.

The leadership is taking extra steps to ensure transparency in the budget process, albeit time-consuming, Lacson said.

“Passing the 2026 budget on time is crucial. Without it, we risk a reenacted 2025 budget—and we cannot permit that,” he said in Filipino during an interview on dwIZ radio.

“If the 2025 budget is reenacted, we will again face large lump-sum appropriations from a budget that has had so many problems,” Lacson pointed out.

The Senate had to adjust its schedule in the ongoing budget deliberations because of the issues that needed to be threshed out from the spending plan of the previous years.

He noted how discussions on the budget’s general principles—normally completed in one day—had to be stretched to three days because of the volume of issues that emerged.

He also cited the case of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), whose budget hearing was disrupted after senators flagged several anomalies, prompting the agency to defer its endorsement for further questioning.

“Those were unforeseen circumstances that required more time,” Lacson said.

Despite the delays, Lacson said the reforms the Senate has rolled out—especially the livestreaming of the bicam and the explicit prohibition of items not found in either chamber’s version of the budget—may actually streamline the process.—MCG, GMA Integrated News