Palace to Congress: Hurry up with work on 2026 budget

Malacañang has urged lawmakers to hasten the passage of the 2026 national budget as President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. does not want the government to run on a reenacted budget next year.

This was according to Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Atty. Claire Castro following Senator Sherwin Gatchalian’s remark that the Senate remains on track so far to pass the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA), despite a “very tight” schedule. 

In a press briefing on Tuesday, Castro said the work on deliberating the spending plan then needs to be hastened.

“Bilisan ang trabaho. Dapat bilisan ang pag-aaral. Ayaw po ng Pangulo ng reenacted budget alam po natin iyan. So, hangga’t maaari bilis-bilisan natin although kahit kapos ang panahon sana po mas mapabilis natin,” she said. 

(Let’s hasten the job. Let’s hasten the study. The President does not want a reenacted budget, we know that. So, let’s hasten the process as much as possible, even if we have little time left, I hope we can hasten it.)

Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, said the bicameral meetings between members of the Senate and the House of Representatives would tentatively last for three days.

The target date for the signing of the P6.793 trillion 2026 GAA by Marcos is on Dec. 29, 2025. 

The tentative calendar for the passage of the 2026 national budget includes the following:

• December 2: Period of amendments
• December 3: Approval on second reading
• December 9: Approval on third reading
• December 11-13: Bicameral conference committee meetings
• December 16: Signing of the bicameral conference committee report
• December 17: Ratification of the bicameral conference committee report and last day of session
• December 29: Signing of the budget by the President

— JMA, GMA Integrated News