Education gets biggest chunk of 2026 budget

The education sector is set to receive the lion’s share of the Marcos administration’s proposed P6.793-trillion budget for 2026, with an allocation of P1.224 trillion, with P928.5 billion specifically earmarked for the Department of Education (DepEd). 

The figures are outlined in the National Expenditure Program, transmitted by the Department of Budget and Management to the House of Representatives on Monday, which will craft the 2026 General Appropriations Bill into a law. 

Next to receive the biggest chunk of the budget is the Department of Public Works and Highways, which is in hot water involving the scandal-plagued flood control project, with P881.3 billion.

Placing third is the health sector, including the Department of Health and state health insurer Philhealth, with P320.5 billion, followed by the Department of National Defense with P299.3 billion.

Completing the top 10 agencies with earmarked with highest budgets are the Departments of the Interior and Local Government (P287.5 billion); Agriculture and attached agencies (P239.2 billion); Social Welfare and Development (P227 billion); Transportation and attached corps. (P198.6B); Judiciary (P67.9B) and Labor and Employment and Migrant Workers (P55.2B).

The proposed 2026 budget is 7.4 percent higher than this year’s P6.326 trillion and is equivalent to 22 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. 

If enacted, this will be the highest budget ever approved by Congress.

From this year’s P1.055 trillion, the allocation for the entire education sector, including the Commission on Higher and Technical Education (CHED) and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), saw a substantial increase of approximately 16.06 percent.

Following the highly criticized budget cut of a whopping P12 billion in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), the DBM inflated the DepEd’s funding by 18.7 percent from this year’s P782.2 billion. 

The allocation for state universities and colleges also jumped by 6.1 percent from last year’s P127.2 billion to P134.9 billion.

In the same vein, CHED’s funding also slightly climbed from P33.3 billion to P33.9 billion in 2026. TESDA, however, incurred a P500 million budget cut from P20.7 billion to P20.2 billion. 

Next year’s proposed budget for education—constitutionally mandated to receive the highest budgetary allocation—surpassed the UNESCO Education 2030 Framework requirement of 15 to 20 percent of total national expenditure and exceeds the global average of 14.2 percent. 

Of the DepEd’s budget, P15.4 billion will be earmarked to create 65,184 positions to address the lack of teaching (32,916) and non-teaching (32,268) personnel, 6,000 of which are school principals. 

The funding will also cover the P41.1 billion in assistance and allowances under DepEd’s Educational Service Contracting Program (P12.4 billion), Senior High School Voucher Program

(P26.5 billion); and the Joint Delivery Voucher

Program (P2.2 billion), with over 2.5 million learners-beneficiaries. 

Meanwhile, the then-controversial computerization program saw its budget soaring to P16.5 billion from merely P2.4 billion in the 2025 GAA. This will cover the procurement of 63,402 packages, including 4,889 smart televisions, 48,561 laptops for teaching personnel, 9,172 laptops for non-teaching personnel, and school-wide internet at 3,285 school sites, among others.

For learning materials, P11.2 billion is set aside to procure 135,614,186 textbooks.

The marathon deliberations for the 2026 budget will start next week. The House has until 10 October to conduct budget hearings. 

Both the House and the Senate amended their respective legislative calendar on Tuesday to provide ample time for lawmakers to scrutinize deeply the 2026 national budget following President Marcos Jr.’s stern warning to return the 2026 GAB should it contain line items that are not fully aligned with the administration’s proposed budget, regardless of whether it results in a reenacted budget.

The 2025 GAA, originally set at P6.352 trillion, was trimmed down to P6.326 trillion after Marcos vetoed P194 billion worth of line items deemed inconsistent with his administration's priority programs, P16.7 billion of which was for the flood control projects.

This year’s budget was also widely criticized for allegedly featuring padded unprogrammed and discretionary funds, massive funding for social aid programs, questionable realignments, and illegal “budget insertions.” The bicameral conference committee, composed of selected members of the House and the Senate, has been on the receiving end of these accusations. 

The constitutionality of the 2025 GAA is currently being petitioned in the Supreme Court by Davao Rep. Isidro Ungab, who exposed the so-called blank items with his longtime ally, former president Rodrigo Duterte.