Senator Loren Legarda, vice chairperson of the Senate Committee on Finance, secured committee endorsement for the 2026 budgets of the country’s cultural institutions during plenary deliberations of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) on Tuesday.

Legarda, who sponsored the allocations for agencies focused on heritage, cultural preservation, and the creative economy, emphasized the importance of culture to national identity.

“It is my honor to sponsor the proposed budget for 2026 for our main cultural agencies,” Legarda said in Filipino. “Culture is not a luxury — it is the soul of our nation.”

As chair of the Committee on Culture and the Arts and principal author of the National Cultural Heritage Act, Legarda stressed the statutory role of these agencies in safeguarding the nation’s identity and history. She detailed how the budgets sustain language preservation, education, and arts infrastructure, supporting national development.

Legarda recommended the approval of the proposed 2026 budgets for key agencies, including the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, the National Library of the Philippines, the National Archives of the Philippines, the Commission on the Filipino Language, and the Cultural Center of the Philippines.