Senate majority bloc: 2026 national budget ‘most transparent’ in recent years

The Senate majority bloc on Thursday backed the bicameral conference committee’s approval of the P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026, calling it the “most transparent in recent memory” for opening the proceedings to the public from start to finish. 

According to Senate President Vicente Tito “Sotto” III and members of the majority bloc, the 2026 budget process was kept “open, data-driven, and respectful of the public’s right to know.”

“This is the new normal we are building in the Senate: a budget process that people can watch, read and verify in real time, with the resulting discussions and supporting materials posted so taxpayers can trace how a peso moves from proposal to final item,” the senators said in a joint statement. 

“Transparency here is policy, not just a catchphrase. There were no midnight deals, no last-minute insertions done in the dark, and no amendments that escaped public scrutiny. Every adjustment was discussed on record, with paper trails that auditors, civil society and the media can check,” they added. 

The majority bloc also expressed gratitude to Senator Sherwin Gatchalian for leading the Senate committee on finance.

For his part, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said the public and like-minded lawmakers should remain vigilant against possible abuses of public funds, even after the budget is ratified by the Congress and signed into law by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. 

“Amid all the disinformation and unreasonable criticisms, we have all the reasons to be proud of our Senate panel under the leadership of our Finance Chair Senator Win. I give my two thumbs up from start to finish,” Lacson said in a separate statement.

“We do not live in a perfect world, much less in an ideal situation, so we cannot be perfectionists and idealistic given the circumstances. That’s why adjustments must be made both ways,” he added.

Senator Risa Hontiveros, meanwhile, believes that the budget process was monitored well by the senators, especially against the contentious budget insertions. 

“Bantay sarado talaga ‘yan laban sa insertions dahil naklaro namin na ang mga proposed amendments ay properly dapat lamang i-propose hanggang sa aming mga periods of amendments,” Hontiveros said in a Super Radyo dzBB interview. 

(We were really monitoring the budget against insertions because we made it clear that the proposed amendments should only be proposed during our periods of amendments.) 

“Anything else after that, kunwari sa bicam na wala naman sa Senate version ng budget, wala sa House version ng budget, ‘yan ay ituturing na insertion at ‘yun ang isang practice ng nakaraan na gusto na naming ipagbawal,” she continued. 

(Anything else after that, the items that were added in the bicam, for example, that were not in the Senate or House version of the budget, will be considered as an insertion. That is a practice in the past that we don’t want to happen again.)

The bicameral conference committee adjourned early Thursday morning, after wrapping up the extensive deliberations on the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget for fiscal year 2026 after four days. 

As the bicam deliberations came to an end, Gatchalian said both chambers of Congress now aim to ratify the spending bill on December 29, which is a week more than the initial December 22 target. 

Gatchalian said the re-adjusted timeline, which was in consultation with House appropriations panel chairperson Rep. Mika Suansing, also took into consideration the holidays. 

They aim to transmit the ratified budget proposal to the Office of the President in the afternoon of December 29, he added.

Earlier, Malacañang said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. does not want a reenacted budget for 2026 and expressed confidence that next year's spending plan would be passed on time. — JMA, GMA Integrated News