A PARTY-LIST lawmaker has called on his colleagues in the House of Representatives to “prioritize youth empowerment, education, student welfare, healthcare reform, and cybersecurity” in the deliberations of the 2026 national budget.
FPJ Panday Bayanihan Rep. Brian Poe, vice chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, made the call during Monday’s sub-committee hearing on the fiscal measure.
Poe, sponsor of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) proposed budget, underscored fiscal prudence and public impact in crafting next year’s General Appropriations Act.
The young legislator also pushed the expansion of the Government Internship Program (GIP) under the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) initiative being implemented by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
“The Government Internship Program is a good stepping stone for youth to get involved in what we are doing here,” Poe said in a statement.
“Many young people want to help our government, to change our system of governance,” he added.
Poe acknowledged that the proposed ₱48.4 billion allotment to construct 19,360 classrooms across the country was “the largest single-year bump ever for DepEd (Department of Education).
He pointed out though that the target represents only 11.73 percent of the nationwide backlog.
Nonetheless, he urged Congress to sustain the momentum.
“If we can carry this until the end, and I think this is what the people want, a bigger budget for education,” he stressed… The committee subsequently decided to allocate P22.5 billion for education “given the tight fiscal space.”
Poe was equally firm on student nutrition, warning against proposed cuts in the school feeding program.
According to him, reducing the school feeding budget from ₱1.88 billion to ₱1.5 billion would exclude 269,000 children, based on 220 feeding days at ₱25 per meal.
“You are looking at 269,000 students that could have been a part of the program but won’t be if you’re slashing it in half,” he warned.
Poe insisted that the baseline ₱1.88 billion must be preserved, framing nutrition as a non-negotiable investment in the next generations. Despite some objections, Poe succeeded in securing the original ₱1.88 billion additional budget.
Poe also pressed PhilHealth to unlock its ₱464.9 billion reserves, which he said was “languishing in banks while Filipinos continue to shoulder hospital costs out-of-pocket.”
While supporting a proposed ₱60 billion increase, he demanded assurances that funds would flow directly to patient care.
On cybersecurity, Poe cited the recent hacking of PAGCOR and the Civil Service Commission, which exposed sensitive data on the dark web, as proof of urgent digital vulnerabilities. He pushed for additional funding of ₱2.5 billion, backed by the DICT’s technical assurances. “Scams, propaganda, illegal gambling happening online, the 2.5B will give us both the equipment we need to monitor and the equipment needed to respond,” he said.
Poe also urged the media and civil society groups to help track spending and prevent misuse of funds. “I would like to take this opportunity to also invite the media and our CSOs that are currently monitoring, that the agencies that we marked as needing extreme scrutiny, sana our friends in the media and CSO can help us na bantayan natin ang budget nila para magamit nila agad,” he said. “It can’t just be us. It also involves us and our civil society partners making sure that the budget is implemented properly.”
