House on NEP: Return to sender

The House of Representatives is eyeing the return to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) of the “poorly constructed” 2026 national budget following the discovery of redundant items for the corruption-ridden flood control projects.

Members of various political blocs, led by Deputy Speaker Ronnie Puno, chairperson of the National Unity Party, announced the plan in a briefing. Still, they will seek Speaker Martin Romualdez’s approval.

Puno had earlier flagged the National Expenditure Program (NEP) outlining the P6.793-trillion proposed national budget for 2026 that was submitted by the DBM to the House on 13 August.

Puno claimed the NEP contains budget items for flood control projects that had been completed, while funding for ongoing and priority programs received zero allocation.

In addition, he said the NEP contained uniform amounts of P73 million to P93 million each for several projects, all outlined in a single page.

Puno said he was not convinced the DBM had overlooked the red flags before submitting the NEP to Congress, suggesting that the agency may have been complicit with the Department of Public Works and Highways in inserting funding for the flood control projects.

‘Crappy’ work

“We’re not causing trouble here. We just don’t want to accept this crappy job and then get blamed again,” Puno told the media in Filipino. “We cannot keep covering up for a poorly constructed budget. There’s no way we’re going to take the heat for that indefinitely.”

“We’re appealing to the Speaker to allow us to just please return this,” he added, referring to the NEP.

The NEP is the President’s proposed budget submitted by the DBM to Congress for its approval. It serves as the basis for the budget bill, which becomes the General Appropriations Act when enacted.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had already warned members of Congress that he would not approve a proposed budget that deviates from the NEP, regardless of whether it results in a reenacted budget.

The stern warning was prompted by the allegations of billions of alleged congressional insertions in the highly controversial 2025 budget, which was blamed on the bicameral conference committee.

Deputy Speaker Janettte Garin supported the proposal noting that it’s always the House that is blamed for alleged illegal insertions.

“But if we look at it, the ghost projects that President Bongbong Marcos visited recently were agency-initiated. Meaning, they came from the department,” she said at the same briefing.

House infrastructure committee chairperson Terry Ridon has insisted that funding for some questionable projects, including flood mitigation, emanated in the NEP submitted by the DBM and were not “inserted” by Congress.

This includes the P55-million reinforced concrete river wall project in Baliwag, Bulacan, which President Marcos inspected on 20 August, only to discover it was a nonexistent or ghost project.

Aside from this, the funding for several questionable flood control projects, including the deteriorating P380-million dike in San Teodoro, Oriental Mindoro; the P260-million rock shed in Tuba, Benguet; and the botched P96.4-million flood control project by St.Timothy Construction in Calumpit, Bulacan, were all NEP-originated projects and not congressional insertions.