Malacañang yesterday said corrections to the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP) should be coursed through errata sheets instead of returning the document to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), following proposals from House leaders to send it back for revisions.
In a Palace briefing, Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Undersecretary Claire Castro said the DBM’s legal team made it clear that errata is the only proper way to address concerns raised in Congress.
“According to the DBM, corrections must go through errata sheets. The NEP cannot be returned to the President or to the DBM because it has already been submitted to Congress,” Castro told reporters.
“That is the process. Otherwise, it would cause significant delays in budget hearings,” she added.
Earlier, the House of Representatives announced the postponement of its plans to return the proposed P6.7-trillion budget for 2026 to the 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.
Castro said the President respects the House leadership’s handling of the issue, as long as it adheres to constitutional procedure.
She added that while Mr. Marcos has directed a review of the DPWH budget, other agencies should also examine their own proposals for possible questionable insertions.
Asked if the Palace feared a delay that could lead to a re-enacted budget, Castro said there were no such concerns: “For now, everything is still within schedule.”
Abante told reporters that “based on the interviews they (Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno and Rep, Jose Alvarez) made, there are statements saying so.”
“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.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline: “Palace: Budget corrections must go through errata, not DBM return”
