House Committee on Appropriations chairperson Rep. Mikaela Angela Suansing said on Friday they will no longer return the proposed P6.783-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2026 to the executive branch, allowing its departments to correct flagged entries instead.
Suansing, who also represents Nueva Ecija’s first district, made the categorical statement during deliberations for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which has been reviewing its proposed P880-billion budget with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
“We can definitively say that the House will not return the NEP to the executive. So, that is clear today. The Congress will not return the NEP to the executive,” Suansing said, noting that she and her fellow legislators will give the DPWH some time to work on an overhauled budget.
The House appropriations committee is on its third week of budget deliberations on the 2026 NEP. Newly-appointed DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon appeared on Friday, but begged off from making a budget presentation, informing lawmakers that they are in the process of reforming it.
“We need sweeping reforms inside the department. I will admit, in all my years of working in the government, I feel overwhelmed by the scale and disorder I found and continue to see within the Department of Public Works and Highways,” Dizon told House members.
“This will not be an easy process, nor will it be a quick one. This will take time, and it will be a very, very difficult process of reform. But as the President said, enough is enough, and we must start somewhere,” he added.
House Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno recently said their review uncovered serious and systemic anomalies in the preparation of the 2026 NEP, particularly within the budget books of the DPWH, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Palawan Rep. Pepito Alvarez, vice chair of the House appropriations committee, said both Dizon and DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman appealed to the House leadership Wednesday night for the continuation of the budget deliberations.
Dizon took over the reins at DPWH only last Sept. 2 after Manuel Bonoan resigned amid the massive controversy on anomalous and “ghost” flood control projects.
