Knives out for the 2026 GAA

With his full attention and energy, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian skillfully steered in Congress the crafting and approval of the P6.793-trillion national government outlay for this year. Along with the rest of the leaders of the 20th Congress, Gatchalian witnessed President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) signing into law the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA) as Republic Act (RA) 12314 last Monday.

Gatchalian heads the powerful counterpart of the House appropriations committee where the annual budget of the national government is required to go through each year. Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III proudly described the freshly signed 2026 GAA as the “cleanest” budget approved to date.

This despite PBBM having vetoed or removed P92.5 billion in seven out of the 10 line items under this year’s unprogrammed appropriations (UA). But these vetoed items all came from the programmed allocations, Gatchalian clarified. Only three items related to loan agreements with foreign entities, military upgrade efforts and emergency situations management in the UA were retained in this year’s national outlay.

At the traditional signing rites held at Malacañang Palace, Gatchalian stood like a proud father at the birth of his first baby, metaphorically speaking. As the chairman of the Senate finance committee, the 51-year-old Gatchalian is actually still single and ready to mingle, so to speak.

Levity aside, Gatchalian co-heads the bicameral conference committee (bicam) as the chairman of the Senate finance committee. Called the “third congress,” the bicam is the powerful body that passes upon the final version of the budget for the new fiscal year. Now on his second and last term at the Senate, he took over the helm of the Senate finance committee on the heels of the scandal-ridden 2025 GAA that was approved by the defunct 19th Congress.

Senator Gatchalian now adds the enactment of the first ever budget law he principally co-authored to his accomplishments as a veteran lawmaker. In our conversations with him at our news forum last Wednesday, Gatchalian proudly called the 2026 GAA as the “people-first” budget. According to him, the 2026 GAA provides the highest ever investment in education in the country’s history.

On top of the budget provided under this year’s National Expenditure Program (NEP), Gatchalian cited the Senate added to the Department of Education (DepEd) the funds realigned from other budget items. It is not surprising for Senator Gatchalian to champion the cause of education. For a long time, he chaired the Senate committee on basic education in the past Congress. As such, he became the co-chairman of the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2) that came up with recommended reforms for the country’s education sector. It focused on data-driven strategies, budget allocation and policy changes for better learning outcomes for Filipino schoolchildren and welfare of public school teachers and administrators.

Gatchalian disclosed the biggest source of the augmented amount to the education sector came from the P86 billion for the Support to Augment Government Infrastructure Projects, otherwise known as SAGIP. The senators took the entire amount out from the NEP and distributed it to the education, health and agriculture sectors in the 2026 national outlay.

Gatchalian noted SAGIP has been a controversial budget item in the NEP through the years. Describing it as a “lump sum allocation for anything under the sun,” Gatchalian rued the SAGIP became the “parking place” for flood control projects of the DPWH.

He recalled the Senate Blue Ribbon committee public hearings where district engineers of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) admitted under oath that some of the alleged “ghost” or non-existent flood control projects were taken from the annual SAGIP allocations. From DPWH records, P25 billion worth of flood control projects were charged to SAGIP in the 2023 budget. Another P80 billion funded flood control projects of the DPWH in the 2024 budget.

However, SAGIP became the source of abuse and corruption in flood control projects that were “inserted” in the UA components of the budget. UA allocations refer to budgetary items that can be used only when excess revenues or additional funding sources become available. Gatchalian clarified that only programmed appropriations which have definite funding sources can be implemented immediately. The items in the UA remain on standby.

Thus, the SAGIP was deemed a form of “pork barrel” allocation that the executive branch included in the NEP.

The same observations were repeatedly voiced before by Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste, who blew the whistle on alleged proponents of “insertions” in the annual budget. Leviste pointed to the DPWH documents that showed even department secretaries and other government officials were identified as “proponents” of some of the flood control projects. The neophyte lawmaker, however, conceded these budget insertions were not necessarily illegal.

However, Gatchalian reassured the public that key innovations introduced in the 2026 GAA will hopefully reduce, if not totally prevent, the flood control projects scam that went into last year’s budget law. For one, he vowed to push for the activation of the Joint Oversight Committee on Public Expenditures (JOCPE).

Actually, Gatchalian conceded, the JOCPE has been provided for in the annual budget law each year but has never been activated. But this time, both the Senate finance committee and the House appropriations committee chaired by Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing will endeavor to make the JOCPE functional as soon as the 20th Congress resumes sessions on Jan. 26.

To make it immediately executory, Gatchalian suggested the JOCPE will be composed of the same members of the bicam who worked on the consolidation of the 2026 GAA. According to Gatchalian, it took five months for both chambers of the present Congress to scrutinize and finalize this year’s budget. So it would be prudent for the lawmakers to closely monitor how the 2026 GAA is implemented.

For Gatchalian, this is the best way to check the proper utilization of taxpayers’ money and guard against corruption rearing its ugly head again in the 2026 GAA.

With this in mind, Gatchalian is sharpening his knives to cut through all of it while waiting for the 2027 budget bill.