Camille Naredo

Members of the Senate and House contingents pose after the signing of the Bicameral Conference Committee's report on the proposed P6.7 trillion 2026 national budget, December 28, 2025 at the Philippine International Convention Center. Handout/Office of Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian

Members of the Senate and House contingents pose after the signing of the Bicameral Conference Committee's report on the proposed P6.7 trillion 2026 national budget, December 28, 2025 at the Philippine International Convention Center

Article (news)

BICAM

Harlene Delgado

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1766920847120viber_image_2025-12-28_19-15-42-540.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Members of the Senate and House contingents pose after the signing of the Bicameral Conference Committee&#x27;s report on the proposed P6.7 trillion 2026 national budget, December 28, 2025 at the Philippine International Convention Center. Handout/Office of Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Members of the Senate and House contingents pose after the signing of the Bicameral Conference Committee&#x27;s report on the proposed P6.7 trillion 2026 national budget, December 28, 2025 at the Philippine International Convention Center. <em>Handout/Office of Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian</em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA (<strong>2nd UPDATE</strong>) -- Several members of the Senate and House contingents signed the Bicameral Conference Committee&#x27;s report on the proposed P6.7 trillion 2026 national budget Sunday, December 28, at the Philippine International Convention Center.</p><p>Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sherwin Gatchalian, together with Senators Loren Legarda, Francis &quot;Kiko&quot; Pangilinan, and JV Ejercito, represented the Senate panel.</p><p>The House panel was attended by House Appropriations Committee Chairperson Rep. Mikaela Suansing and Representatives Allan Ty, Marcelino Libanan, Jurdin Jesus Romualdo, Javier Benitez, Jose Alvarez, and Albert Garcia. </p><p>The two panels also presented the four-volume, 4,037-page reconciled version of the 2026 General Appropriations Bill containing the proposed national budget.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/12/24/marcos-to-sign-2026-budget-on-first-week-of-january-recto-1228">READ: Marcos to sign 2026 budget on first week of January — Recto</a></div><p>Both Suansing and Gatchalian said this is the first time in history that the budget&#x27;s &quot;reconciled, enrolled copy&quot; was printed out and shared with conferees ahead of the signing of the Bicam report.</p><p>Suansing said they want to call the 2026 national budget &quot;people-centered&quot; -- responsive to the needs of the people and a &quot;product of reforms&quot; towards transparency and accountability.</p><p>Gatchalian, meanwhile, assured that the budget is focused on human capital development, putting a premium on the education, health, and agriculture sectors. </p><div><br/></div><div><strong>DELAY HAS &#x27;NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT&#x27;</strong></div><p>With the delay in the budget transmittal and signing, Gatchalian believes this will not cause much impact to the country&#x27;s economy.</p><p>The budget&#x27;s enrolled bill will be transmitted to Malacañang on Monday, December 29, after both chambers&#x27; ratification. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is expected to sign the budget on January 5.</p><p>&quot;January 1 and 2 is a holiday. So, wala namang significant government activity so in other words, walang bagong iko-construct, walang bagong magiging programa dahil holiday, so dahil made-delay siya ng five days, hindi ko nakikitang magiging significant impact sa ating ekonomiya,&quot; he said, noting that the executive needs &quot;almost one week&quot; to study the budget.</p><p>Gatchalian added that coordination with the executive department is underway, noting that there have been &quot;reconciliations,&quot; such as merging and editing of special and general provisions.</p><p>&quot;I realized, kahit nagko-coordinate kami, close coordination pero iba pala &#x27;yung final version kasi magpalit lang ng isang word, iba na kaagad &#x27;yung buong meaning ng special and general provision,&quot; Gatchalian stated.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/12/25/budget-watchdog-sees-red-flag-items-despite-lawmakers-assurances-of-no-pork-1246">READ: Budget watchdog sees &#x27;red flag&#x27; items despite lawmakers&#x27; assurances of no pork</a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>GUARANTEE LETTERS</strong></div><p>Gatchalian also disclosed that there was no special provision in the budget that explicitly disallowed guarantee letters from politicians for those who seek medical assistance.</p><p>&quot;Wala kasing ganun na provision sa Senate version at sa House version. Walang ganun na provision,&quot; the senator responded when asked whether the guarantee letters were removed under the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) Program.</p><p>What is included, according to Gatchalian, is an &quot;anti-epal&quot; special provision that will prohibit politicians from engaging in distribution of government cash aid, or &quot;ayuda.&quot;</p><p>&quot;Sinigurado lang namin na covered lahat ng mga pulitiko at &#x27;yung mga representatives nila. Hindi rin sila pwedeng maglagay ng mga tarpaulin or paraphernalia during the distribution,&quot; he said.</p><p>Government agencies will release their respective guidelines on operationalizing the said provision, according to Gatchalian.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>BUDGET &#x27;SAFEGUARDS&#x27;</strong></div><p>The senator also assured enough safeguards in the budget, calling the whole budget an &quot;anti-corruption measure.&quot;</p><p>These include inclusions of coordinates and granular data for every infrastructure project, such as the entire 4,000 farm-to-market road projects.</p><p>&quot;So, imposible na magkaka ghost project or substandard project kasi ngayon meron nang coordinates unlike in the past walang coordinates sila so pwede siyang mahaba, pwedeng maiksi, pwedeng ghost,&quot; he noted.</p><p>Other infrastructures, such as classrooms, hospitals, health centers, and barrack repairs, will be implemented by their respective agencies and will no longer be &quot;centralized&quot; to the Department of Public Works and Highways.</p><p>Gatchalian also assured that the budget is &quot;pork-free&quot; and expressed confidence that no items will be vetoed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.</p><p>&quot;Confident naman kami na walang mabi-veto dahil very close yung aming coordination sa executive at sa mga ahensya,&quot; Gatchalian told reporters in an ambush interview after signing.</p><p>&quot;Walang nabago, very strict ang aming instructions sa mga staff. Even kami sa mga conferees, lahat ng pinag-usapan sa Bicam, &#x27;yun na &#x27;yun,&quot; the lawmaker added.</p><p>The copy of the enrolled bill will also be uploaded to the transparency portals of both the Senate and the House, according to Gatchalian.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO:</strong></div><div><strong><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1E6Gu2j-Ytg?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></strong><strong></strong><em><strong></strong></em><br/></div>

<p>House Appropriations Committee Rep. Mikaela Suansing described the budget as "people-centered" and "a product of reforms."</p>

House Appropriations Committee Rep. Mikaela Suansing described the budget as "people-centered" and "a product of reforms."

Bicam report on 'people-centered' 2026 national budget signed

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Bicam report on 'people-centered' 2026 national budget signed

Harlene Delgado,

ABS-CBN News

Published Dec 28, 2025 06:07 PM PHT

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Updated Dec 28, 2025 09:07 PM PHT

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national budget

Senate

House of Representatives

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Bicameral Conference Committee

Mikaela Suansing

2026 budget

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