A total of P1.28-billion worth of projects have been removed from the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) currently under Senate scrutiny, Senate Finance Committee Chair Senator Sherwin Gatchalian revealed.

Gatchalian explained that the projects in question raised concerns due to duplication, repetition, and other red flags.

“I heard the Senate President mention earlier about projects that were allegedly removed from the GAB. So, for the record, we haven’t touched any projects in the GAB. We’ve adopted all the projects submitted to us from the House of Representatives, except for 28 out of the 6,113 projects,” Gatchalian said during Thursday night’s budget deliberations.

“These 28 projects, upon review with the DPWH, were found to have duplicate projects, repetitive projects, and projects with red flags. So, these 28 projects, amounting to P1.2 billion, were removed. Other than that, we adopted the projects under the General Appropriations Bill that was transmitted to the Senate. There is no truth to the claim that we have stopped the projects,” he stressed.

Gatchalian noted that, for the first time, the Senate uploaded the committee report, together with its annexes, to its website, reflecting projects that were deleted or added.

Report misinterpreted

“If we don’t move the projects, they won’t be included in the committee report because they are still with the GAB. I think when they looked at the committee report, the projects weren’t there, and they assumed we deleted them. That is not the case, I think. I assume that they misinterpreted the Senate Committee report,” he explained.

In an earlier interview, Gatchalian said the Senate and the House of Representatives had agreed to allot at least five days for deliberations on the 2026 national budget, scheduled for the end of the second week of December.

“The bicam would last five days. If Congress accepts the Senate version, things will be easier, depending on the lawmakers’ disagreements. We will still discuss it, but coordination, the ground rules, and the timetable are already starting. We have already identified a venue, which is a government facility in Intramuros, Manila,” he said.