Cutting the greed

It would be something to look forward to on how the 20th Congress would be able to go about the proposed 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA) bill. The proposed 2026 GAA bill will be coming out on the heels of the amendments and insertions into the present 2025 budget law, large chunks of which went into reported “ghost” flood control projects.

This after the Senate approved at plenary session yesterday the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget for 2026 on second, third and final reading. The proposed 2026 GAA bill got fast-track approval even without any certification as urgent from President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. (PBBM).

Incidentally, PBBM convened yesterday at Malacañang the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC). Senate President Vicente Sotto III and House Speaker Faustino Dy III attended the LEDAC meeting before the Senate voted on the 2026 GAA bill.

Only 17 of the 24 senators present in plenary voted in favor of the 2026 GAA bill, others were either absent or arrived after the voting. Not present at the plenary session when the voting took place were Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano and his sister Pia; siblings Mark and Camille Villar; Imee Marcos, JV Ejercito and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa. Senator Camille went on maternity leave after she gave birth to her second child. Senator JV is still indisposed and confined in hospital.

Dela Rosa remains “missing in action” since the reported issuance of a warrant of arrest against him from the International Criminal Court at The Hague. In the absence of Dela Rosa, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, as the chairman of the Senate finance committee, took over the sub-committees assigned to the “missing” senator. Dela Rosa was tasked to defend the respective budgets of the police and military establishments and its attached agencies.

To his credit, Sen. Gatchalian steered not just Dela Rosa’s budget committees but the entire 2026 GAB in his first time as Senate finance committee chairman. His counterpart chairman of the House committee on appropriations is Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Angela Suansing, also a first-timer like Gatchalian as budget head in Congress.

Having previously chaired the Senate basic education committee, Gatchalian proudly cited the Senate version of the 2026 GAA bill significantly boosts allocations for classrooms, school feeding and state universities and colleges. Education spending now stands at P1.37 trillion, or P91.24 billion higher than the House version, with funds to build more than 24,000 new classrooms and expand the feeding program to 200 school days for 4.8 million learners.

The proposed GAA bill will now move to the bicameral conference committee (bicam), or the so-called “third congress.” The bicam is composed of equal number of senators and House members who would pass upon a consolidated and final version of the proposed budget bill.

The bicam meetings will start on Dec. 12 and last until all differing provisions in the Senate and House versions of the budget are ironed out.

The 20th Congress needs to redeem itself from the backlash of the “badly mangled” 2025 budget law that was approved by its immediate predecessor – the 19th Congress. Among other changes instituted, the respective leaderships of the Senate and the House of Representatives agreed to adopt greater transparency measures.

Foremost of which is putting every line item in the budget of the 2026 GAA bill available for public viewing through copies downloaded online on the website of both Congress and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). Dubbed as “The President’s Budget,” the annual GAA contains the National Expenditure Program (NEP) of the President.

So when the Congress-approved 2025 GAA came out, PBBM found to his dismay budget allocations for many of his flagship projects in the NEP were re-aligned elsewhere. Either senators or Congress members became the “proponents” of flood control projects not even listed in the NEP. Instead, the realigned funds went to the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

But what riled PBBM the most was his subsequent discovery that for the past three years of his administration, many of the flagship projects became “ghost” flood control projects. Thus, he delivered the “Mahiya naman kayo” dig in his State of the Nation Address last July. While it was dished out to the 20th Congress, half of the senators and many of the House members were part of the previous 19th Congress that passed upon the budget laws in the past three years.

Among the key reforms instituted in the bicam, according to Sen. Gatchalian, is to identify the “proponent” in every project funded in the line item budget of each agency of the government.

Whatever will be its final version of the proposed 2026 GAA, the present leaderships in both chambers have committed to livestream the final stages of the budget approval process. As of yesterday though, there was still stiff resistance reportedly from the ranks of the Lower House. Understandably, for so many of them are being identified as “proponents” of projects being added, if not inserted.

The House pushback also stems from over-the-board demands by certain civil society organizations. One of them reportedly demanded not only being allowed to watch and observe but also be consulted on proposed amendments. Such demand is too much for un-elected individuals to be dictating upon our lawmakers.

The bicam secretariat has been scouting for a venue to hold their meetings. As of last week, they found Centro de Turismo at Arzobispo St. in Intramuros, Manila as the most convenient place for both the senators and House members to hold their bicam meetings. Done in the past behind closed doors and in secluded function rooms in five-star hotels in Metro Manila, the bicam setting has been toned down.

The bicam for the 2026 GAA ostensibly is keeping a low profile amid public sentiments on the past abuses and excesses of congressional budget insertions. The usual horse-trading, the wheeling-and-dealing in bicam meetings would hopefully be reduced, if not totally purged.

But the real test of the new budget bicam system is if these reforms could really cut the greed of the past.