Vice Pres. Sara Duterte Believes President Should have “Control” over 2026 Proposed National Budget
SARA DUTERTE – The Vice President claimed that Pres. Bongbong Marcos must not allow the legislators to intervene with the 2026 proposed national budget.
Previously, following the remarks of Pres. Bongbong Marcos that he will not approve budget proposals that are not in line with the government’s plan, Senate Pres. Chiz Escudero stressed that the “power of the purse”: belongs to the Congress. According to him, the Senate and the House of Representatives must not act like a “rubber stamp”.
Malacañang called on the Congress not to abuse the “power of the purse”. After the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has submitted the National Expenditure Program or NEP to the House of Representatives, Marcos Jr. who claimed that PH is poised to be a leader among the nations called on the Congress to “swiftly enact” the 2026 proposed national budget. The proposed budget for next year totals to P6.793 trillion based on the NEP prepared by the executive department.
Based on the NEP, the office of Marcos Jr. seeks over P1 billion budget for his local and foreign trips. The OP seeks P27.362 billion for 2026 — far from its 2025 approved budget of P15.9 billion. The office of the President is also poised to get the biggest share from the proposed confidential and intelligence funds for 2026.
The proposed CIF for 2026 is at P10.77 billion. From the said request, P4.5 billion confidential and intelligence funds are proposed to be given to the office of Marcos Jr. The office of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte did not ask for CIF amid the ongoing questions and issues over the previous confidential funds spending of her office.
Here are the proposed budget for the different key departments in the government for 2026:
- 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
However, what seemed unexpected was the huge cut of P16.8 billion from the 2026 proposed national budget for the House of Representatives. Previously, ahead of the budget talks, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte claimed that her office’s P903-million proposed budget for 2026 is expected to be reduced citing that the President and the House Speaker are still the same people.
According to Duterte, her office’s proposed budget will allegedly be reduced when the NEP reaches the House of Representatives. Based on a report on Abante, the Vice President is currently in The Hague but she is set to fly to Japan for September 20-21 events and return to The Hague for the hearing of former Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte on September 23. Recently, she spoke anew with the regards to the 2026 proposed national budget.
While in The Hague, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte claimed that the President should have a control over the 2026 proposed national budget. She stressed that it should follow the proposed budget from the budgeting system.
“Dapat konrolado ng President ‘yung budget. Dapat kung ano ‘yung lumalabas sa budgeting system from the regional development councils paakyat sa national development council paakyat sa Cabinet level at kung ano ‘yung napag-usapan based on development plans, ‘yun ang nasusunod,” she expressed.
Vice Pres. Sara Duterte also claimed that Pres. Bongbong Marcos must not allow the legislators to intervene with the 2026 proposed national budget. Her remarks came even if Senate Pres. Chiz Escudero stressed the Congress’ “power of the purse” against Marcos Jr. remarks before.
“Dapat hindi pumapayag ang Pangulo na pakialaman ng legislators ang budget,” Duterte said.
Amid the budget talks, Senator Ping Lacson proposed an “experiment” of fully adopting the P6.79-trillion proposed budget for 2026.