Congress adjusts calendar to approve 2026 budget bill
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate amended their respective legislative calendars on Monday, moving the resumption of their plenary sessions to Dec. 29 to pave the way for the ratification of the proposed P6.793-trillion 2026 national budget.
With the new calendar, Malacañang will have only two days—Dec. 30 and Dec. 31—to sign the budget into law, before the country is forced to adopt a reenacted budget. Under Article VI, Section 25 of the 1987 Constitution, the country will have a reenacted budget, or will use the budget of a previous year, if “by the end of any fiscal year, the Congress shall have failed to pass the general appropriations bill for the ensuing fiscal year.”
During the Senate’s plenary session, Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri made a motion to move the resumption of session from Dec. 22 to Dec. 29, and the adjournment of session from Dec. 23 to Dec. 30.
“I manifest before this body that additional time is required to complete the preparation and ratification of the conference committee report on the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) for fiscal year 2026,” he said.
The motion was approved by Senate President Vicente Sotto III with no objections coming from their colleagues.
In the House, the move to amend the calendar came from Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander Marcos who proposed that the last session day for the year be held on Dec. 29, instead of Dec. 22, and that they adjourn on Dec. 30, instead of Dec. 23. This, according to him, will allow the bicameral conference committee on the disagreeing provisions on the 2026 GAB to submit its final report.
House Deputy Speaker Yevgeny Emano approved the motion after no one objected.
Suansing’s assurance
The bicameral committee wrapped up early Thursday morning, following delays due to wrong computations in the reduction of project costs of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing, meanwhile, assured her colleagues at the House that the bicameral conference committee report on the proposed 2026 national budget would be sent to their offices a day before its scheduled ratification on Dec. 29.
This was after ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio asked if members could get a copy of the final version of the GAB for proper scrutiny.
Several reforms have been initiated for the 2026 budget cycle, from the House’s decision to create the budget amendments review subcommittee, which replaced the small committee tasked to make amendments after the House has approved the GAB; to the livestreaming of the entire bicameral conference process.
Controversies
Calls for a more transparent budget came after different controversies, like the supposed presence of blanks in the bicameral report, which were revealed by Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab and former President Rodrigo Duterte early this year.
Ungab said he would challenge the 2025 General Appropriations Act before the Supreme Court as there were blanks in the bicameral committee report, particularly on the portion allotted for the Department of Agriculture and Department of Agrarian Reform programs.
Former Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, then the acting chair of the House committee on appropriations, said that the blank items in the bicameral report had exact figures already, insisting that the empty provisions were only left for final calculations.
Quimbo also said back then that it was the Senate committee on finance’s technical staff, which prepared the bicameral report on the GAB. Furthermore, Quimbo noted that the adjustments could be seen in the Senate’s committee report.
