MANILA, Philippines — A mainstay in the national budget for years, the unprogrammed appropriations may have to be removed in the 2026 budget program to ensure “immediate funding” for projects, Senate finance committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian said yesterday.
“Personally, if you ask me, there should be no more unprogrammed funds. Everything should be programmed so there is immediate funding,” Gatchalian said in an interview with the The STAR’s “Truth on the Line” program.
He expressed his position against unprogrammed funds amid views that it is through unprogrammed funds that lawmakers can request funds for their pet projects after the enactment of the budget, reminiscent of the now outlawed pork barrel.
Unprogrammed funds are portions of the budget that can only be tapped if there is excess revenue collection and approved loans for foreign-assisted projects.
They are basically standby funds for additional spending on pet projects if there are new or excess revenue sources for the government.
Unprogrammed funds can increase the country’s budget deficit if it reaches a level that needs to be funded with debt borrowings, Gatchalian said.
Thanks to lawmakers’ insertions, unprogrammed appropriations amounted to P531.7 billion in the 2025 national budget after it went through the bicameral conference committee. But President Marcos deleted P168.24 billion in the unprogrammed appropriations under the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) which he signed. This left a remaining P363 billion unprogrammed appropriations.
The proposed unprogrammed appropriations stand at P250 billion under the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP).
“Our national debt is increasing. By the end of the administration, the country is expected to incur P21 trillion in public debt. The Marcos administration alone will accumulate P9.1 trillion public debt, the highest in all the administrations. So we need to manage our deficit,” Gatchalian said.
But Gatchalian said his proposal to deleting the unprogrammed appropriations in the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget in 2026 was just his “initial reaction that still needs to be consulted with the executive department if it will have an impact.”
“But this is a way forward, because if unprogrammed funds are realigned to programmed, then this will free up the budget and address fiscal deficit,” he said.
Asked if he would try to get Congress support for his move to remove a source of discretionary funds, Gatchalian said: “It’s a radical proposal, admittedly. I cannot answer that now, but that is one idea that we broached during the Development Budget Coordination Committee hearing.”
“We are open to the idea. But we have to look at the finer details. I’m coordinating with the executive department on this one,” Gatchalian said.
Sen. Ping Lacson earlier flagged the use of unprogrammed appropriations in flood control projects that turned out to be substandard or non-existent.
In his privilege speech, Lacson named Oriental Mindoro Rep. Arnan Panaligan as having substandard flood control projects using congressional funds sourced from the unprogrammed appropriations.
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