The government will operate on a reenacted budget, at least for the first five days of 2026, as President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will review the enrolled budget bill first before signing it into law on January 5, Executive Secretary Ralph Recto said yesterday.
Under the Constitution, the President has 30 days to sign or veto the national budget after its submission. If he does not act on the measure within 30 days, the bill would lapse into law.
The President may also choose to do a line veto of certain items in the budget.
Senate Committee on Finance chairperson Sherwin Gatchalian and Senate President Pro Tempore Ping Lacson said the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget may be signed on January 5 to give the Executive branch sufficient time to thoroughly review the voluminous 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. The prudent course of action is to move the signing to January 5 to ensure that every provision is thoroughly reviewed,” Gatchalian said.
Gatchalian said the enrolled budget would be transmitted directly to Malacañang on Dec. 29.
Lacson said such a short reenactment would be preferable to rushing the approval of the 2026 General Appropriations Act at the expense of safeguards and accountability.
“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.
He said the bicameral conference committee struggled to fully reconcile differences on several contentious provisions, including proposed increases for farm-to-market roads and “ayuda” programs such as the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) and the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS), which he said remain vulnerable to political abuse.
He also cited the Department of Public Works and Highways’ appeal to restore portions of its budget despite earlier commitments to reduce allocations due to overpriced Construction Materials Price Data (CMPD).
To address these concerns, Lacson said the Senate agreed in caucus to insert general and special provisions in the 2026 budget to serve as safeguards during implementation.
These include a ban on guarantee letters and any form of “epal” in aid distribution, strict implementation of MAIFIP under the Universal Health Care program in compliance with the UHC law, and monthly oversight of infrastructure and farm-to-market road projects with grid coordinates to allow easier monitoring by the media and the public.
“Certainly, the bicameral committee report is far from perfect insofar as proper utilization of public funds is concerned. Having said that, we cannot be in a perfect and ideal world when we entrust government funds to politicians of different persuasions and attitudes,” Lacson said.
For his part, ACT Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio welcomed the commitment of the House leadership to provide members with a copy of the bicameral conference committee report on the proposed 2026 national budget one day before its ratification.
“We do not want a repeat of what happened before, that the copies are given at the last minute only, and then they would say that, on the basis that Congress is being turned into a rubber stamp, as it is a rubber stamp approval. During these times, the people would no longer accept reasons like the House members did not have a chance to read the changes made in the bicam,” he said.
Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing, committee on appropriations chairperson, assured House members the bicameral report will be distributed to members on December 28, after the bicameral committee signs the final version.
