Marcos to sign 2026 budget in 1st week of January 2026 –Recto

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will not be signing the proposed 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA) before the year ends. 

This, as Executive Secretary Ralph Recto confirmed to GMA News Online on Wednesday that Marcos will sign the bill outlining the P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026 in the first week of January. 

“Yes, 1st week of January," Recto said in a text message.

Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III previously floated the possibility of a reenacted budget for the beginning of 2026. 

Asked if there will be negative implications due to a reenacted budget, Sotto said, “Wala. A few days or a week or so, walang problema ‘yun.”

(There’s none. There’s no problem if the budget is reenacted for a few days or a week or so.) 

Sotto also acknowledged that Marcos would sign the GAA early next year.

“Then it’s January 5,” the Senate President briefly said in a Viber message to reporters. 

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, recognized that the President "needs sufficient time" to thoroughly review the enrolled budget documents. 

“We acknowledge that submitting the budget to the Executive on December 29 is 2 days before the new year, and the Executive needs sufficient time to review the 4,000+ page enrolled copies of the budget,” Gatchalian said.

“The prudent course of action is to move the signing to January 5 to ensure that every provision is thoroughly reviewed,” he added. 

For Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, a reenacted 2025 budget in January or even in the first quarter of 2026 would be the most prudent option given the corruption issues hounding the government. 

“This is exactly what I said earlier - better a reenacted budget in January, or even in the first quarter of 2026, than rushing the passage of a national budget that is not responsive to the call of the times, amidst the yet unresolved investigations on the misuse and abuse of the current and previous expenditure programs, particularly involving flood control projects,” Lacson said in a statement. 

The bicameral conference committee adjourned last Thursday, wrapping up the extensive deliberations on the proposed 2026 national budget after four days.

Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have adjusted their legislative calendar to pave the way for ratification of the bicameral conference committee report on the proposed 2026 national budget once the session resumes on December 29.—with Anna Felicia Bajo/AOL/VBL, GMA Integrated News