On Day 4, bicam talks on 2026 budget at standstill pending DPWH data on materials' costs

The bicameral conference committee deliberations on the proposed P6.793 trillion national budget for 2026 has yet to resume on Tuesday evening pending the submission of data from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) on the recomputed cost of its projects, Senator Francis Pangilinan said.

Pangilinan, one of the members of the Senate contingent to the bicameral talks, made the disclosure at around 7 p.m. on Tuesday on the sidelines of the meeting that was supposed to start at 4 p.m.

“Secretary [Vince] Dizon said they will recompute the cost of materials, we are waiting for that… The actual cost, so that instead of the full restoration, it will just be restoration [of the budget request] without the overpriced [materials],” Pangilinan told reporters.

He added: “We just have preliminary numbers. We will have to wait for the data, and we will have to cross check.”

Senator Francis Pangilinan says Bicam deliberations on the proposed P6.7 trillion budget for 2026 is yet to start pending data from DPWH's recomputation of the cost of materials for its projects @gmanews pic.twitter.com/z8RoWU42QG

— Llanesca T. Panti (@llanescajourno) December 16, 2025

Pangilinan said Senate finance committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian also wanted to settle the issue with the DPWH budget before proceeding with deliberations on the proposed budget of other government agencies.

“Gusto ni Senator Win unahin ito [DPWH] para tapos na,” Pangilinan said.

(Senator Win wanted to finish this first.)

However, Pangilinan could not say if the bicameral discussions would be postponed for the second straight day.

“I could not say. Abangan (I could not say. Let’s wait and see),” he added.

On Monday, the Senate contingent postponed the bicameral talks amid a deadlock on the DPWH’s allocations, which were slashed to P570 billion by the Senate from the P624.48 billion proposed by the House of Representatives in its version of the 2026 national budget.

Over the weekend, the DPWH appealed to the Senate to restore amounts deducted from the agency’s proposed 2026 budget due to reductions based on the Construction Materials Price Data (CMPD).

Previously, House appropriations panel chair Rep. Mikaela Suansing and Dizon said the further cuts to the DPWH budget at P570 billion could result in the non-implementation of certain projects to the public’s detriment.

Later on Monday night, Gatchalian announced that the discussions will resume today, December 16 at 4 p.m. — JMA, GMA Integrated News