House Speaker Martin Romualdez Speaks on Budget Scrutiny as Deliberation of Proposed 2026 Fund Kicks Off
MARTIN ROMUALDEZ – The House Speaker vowed that the House of Representatives will scrutinize the proposed 2026 national budget.
The P6.793 trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for the proposed 2026 national budget has already been submitted by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to the House of Representatives last week. Ahead of it, Malacañang called on the Congress not to abuse the “power of the purse”,
Palace press office undersecretary Claire Castro also reiterated the request of President Bongbong Marcos for the budget talks to be accessible to the public. House Speaker Martin Romualdez previously filed a bill seeking for “watchdogs” during the budget talks.
Following the submission of the NEP to the House, Marcos Jr. claimed that the Philippines is poised to be a leader among the nations. He also claimed that the country is on the track with regards to its “Agenda for Prosperity”, thus, he called on the Congress to ‘swiftly enact’ the proposed 2026 budget.
With regards to the budget sought of the Office of the President, it rose from the P15.9 billion budget of Marcos Jr.’s office for 2025 to seeking P27.362 billion for 2026. The proposed budget is inclusive of the P1 billion budget sought by Marcos Jr.’s office for his local and foreign trips in 2026.
With regards to the proposed budget for the key departments of the government, here are the fund proposals as per the President:
- Department of Education (DepEd) — P928.5 billion
- Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) — P881.3 billion
- Department of Health (DOH) — P320.5 billion
- Department of National Defense (DND) — P299.3 billion
- Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) — P287.5 billion
- Department of Agriculture (DA) — P239.2 billion
- Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) — P227.0 billion
- Department of Transportation (DOTr) — P197.3 billion
- Judiciary Department — P67.9 billion
- Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) — P55.2 billion
With regards to the Confidential and Intelligence Funds requested for 2026, Pres. Bongbong Marcos’ office gets the lion’s share of the proposed Confidential and Intel Funds which reduced from the current CIF at P12.12 billion down by 11% to P10.77 billion in the proposal for next year.
- Office of the President — P4.5 billion CIF
- National Intelligence Coordinating Agency — P1.141 billion CIF
- Department of National Defense — P1.848 billion CIF
- Other executive offices including the Anti-Money Laundering Council, National Security Council, and the Philippine National Police — P2.292 billion CIF
Today, the budget deliberation kicks off. House Speaker Martin Romualdez assured that they will scrutinized the proposed 2026 national budget.
Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, House Speaker Martin Romualdez stressed that every Peso must serve a meaningful purpose that will benefit the Filipino people. DBM Amenah Pangandaman, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan Jr., and Finance Secretary Ralph Recto were also present.
“Just as every Filipino household plans its budget with care, we too must ensure that each peso serves a meaningful purpose… Bawat gastusin ay dapat may pakinabang sa tao,” the House Speaker said.
Meanwhile, based on the report, Speaker Martin Romualdez clarified that while they will scrutinize the budget proposal, they will do it not as an opposition of the executive branch which crafted the proposal but as an ally.
“To our partners in the Executive Branch, allow me to be clear: We will scrutinize, we will question, we will deliberate thoroughly. But we’ll do so not as adversaries, but as allies united by a shared purpose,” the presidential cousin and House Speaker said.
Surprisingly, it was previously reported that House of Representatives’ Proposed 2026 Budget suffers a huge proposed cut of P16.8 billion.