House proceeds with 2026 budget deliberations despite 'red flags'

The deliberations on the proposed P6.793 trillion next year’s budget continued on Thursday, following a botched attempt to send it back to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) for being “poorly constructed” and “sloppy.”

House Deputy Speakers Ronaldo Puno and Janette Garin, along with senior members of various political parties in the chamber, recommended returning the National Expenditure Program (NEP) to the DBM on Wednesday, accusing it of containing redundant budget items for the corruption-ridden flood control projects under the Department of Public Works and Highways.

However, the plan did not succeed after Puno and House committee on appropriations vice chair Jose Alvarez consulted Speaker Martin Romualdez late Wednesday, when they reached a consensus not to proceed.

Puno had earlier flagged the NEP, alleging it contains budget items for flood control projects that have already been completed, while funding for ongoing and priority programs received zero allocation. 

He also accused it of containing uniform amounts for several projects worth P73 million to P93 million, all outlined in a single page in NEP. 

“He told us instead of returning everything, we can just point it out to the DPWH per district [in the budget briefing]…We agreed,” Puno said in an interview.

Red flags

Aside from the flood control, lawmakers also raise suspicions about funding “insertions” for certain projects under different agencies that they believe are unnecessary.

This includes a P8-billion allocation for firearms under the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), which Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. flagged as an “attempted insertion.”

Abante said the amount is “staggering” for 80,000 units of caliber 5.56 mm basic assault rifles, projecting each amounting to P100,000, prompting him to call for a congressional investigation.

The move was fueled by reports online, pointing to a letter purportedly from the Philippine National Police addressed to DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla, which allegedly asks for the inclusion of P8 billion in the 2026 budget to procure 80,000 units of standardized caliber 5.56 mm basic assault rifles.

The letter was allegedly brought by Adrian Sanares, the son of retired general and current DILG undersecretary for peace and order Nestor Sanares, to then-PNP Chief Nicolas Torre III for signature. 

“Why is a budget insertion request being facilitated by the son of an undersecretary of the agency that would approve such a request?” Abante’s letter to the House committee on public order and safety reads. 

It was speculated that Torre’s alleged refusal to sign the document contributed to his removal as chief of the PNP.

Puno said lawmakers scoured the budget books but found no trace of the allocation in either the 2025 or 2026 budgets.

Another “example of misallocation” in the 2026 budget, Garin claimed, is the P1 billion in Department of Health funds allegedly intended for hospitals and rural health units but instead earmarked for office beautification.

The former DOH chief lamented that this only exposed how the 2026 budget was poorly crafted. 

Garin had suggested that it’s best to revert the NEP to the DBM, asserting that it’s always the House that is being blamed for alleged illegal insertions.

Other red flags observed in next year's budget, includes oversized lump-sum “nationwide” allocations under DPWH, and reports of “allocation-for-sale” schemes in the Department of Agriculture's budget for farm-to-market roads.

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

President 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.