The House of Representatives on Thursday announced the postponement of its plans to return the proposed P6.7-trillion budget for 2026 to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) over flagged errors and questionable entries.
House spokesperson and lawyer Princess Abante said party leaders met with Speaker Martin Romualdez on Wednesday night, which resulted in some of them agreeing not to push through with the move until the DBM and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) own up to the questionable items.
“Based on the interviews they (Puno and Alvarez) made, there are statements saying so,” Abante said in a press conference.
“But I don’t know if we can already say it will be returned or not, because only two House leaders have said that they won’t recommend the return of the proposed budget anymore. Still, their position on the issues they raised, that it should be the DBM making the corrections, not Congress, did not change,” she added in a mix of English and Filipino.
The spokesperson said the House remains confident it can pass the 2026 national budget on schedule, despite the reported request of lawmakers for the DBM to review the National Expenditure Program (NEP).
“That’s why the budget deliberations are still ongoing, so that items that don’t have any problems can be tackled. We don’t know how quickly the DBM will review those budgets that were found to have observations among members,” Abante said.
She explained that the call of House leaders to return the NEP does not necessarily mean a physical action, but could also be done through corrections made during the deliberations.
