Calls from budget watchdogs to remove unprogrammed appropriations (UA) from the 2026 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) and to cut confidential and intelligence funds intensified after Congress held its first-ever “open” bicameral conference committee (bicam) meeting on Saturday.

The Senate, in support of the transparency initiative, also committed to making all national budget-related documents accessible to the public through a centralized Senate budget transparency portal.

Allocations for the UA, which has items worth P175 billion, are contingent on the additional revenues or proceeds from borrowings.

Critics of the administration said the UA included routine budget items that had been displaced by legislators’ inserted pet projects and embodied a new form of pork barrel.

The bicam, composed of select members of the House and Senate, is also under intense scrutiny amid concerns of a possible recurrence of “last-minute insertions” in the 2026 proposed budget, as happened with the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

This year’s national budget, derided by critics as the “most corrupt” budget in Philippine history, was initially set at P6.352 trillion.

However, it was trimmed to P6.326 trillion after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vetoed P194 billion in line items deemed inconsistent with his administration’s priority programs, including P16.7 billion for flood control projects.

Slashed from the 2025 budget were “budget insertions” that were believed inserted during the bicam proceedings.

Following the intense public clamor, Congress opened its doors to the public.

Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III maintained that there will be no further insertions in the P6.793-trillion proposed 2026 budget, but fiscal experts said he should substantiate his statement by pushing for the removal of the UA.

“No, there will be no insertions. Insertions may be made during the bicameral meeting, but after they will no longer be allowed,” Sotto said.

“I already reminded Senator Sherwin Gatchalian that what was discussed in the House and in the Senate, those are what will be debated during the bicameral meeting,” he added.

Amendments-free GAB

Gatchalian is the chairperson of the Senate Finance Committee.

The senator assured that no new amendments will be introduced and that sources from other departments, as well as individual amendments they consider worthy of attention, are available on the Senate website.

“As far as the Senate is concerned, there is no pork barrel,” he added.

The bicameral meeting was initially scheduled to run from 12 December to Sunday, 14 December. However, Gatchalian said, the technical staff of both chambers needed more time to reconcile the provisions and amounts in dispute.

Gatchalian said earlier they will limit the discussions to conflicting provisions and budget allocations, beginning with the General Appropriations Bill.

The proposed P6.7-trillion national budget for 2026 may be sent to President Marcos for signing by 29 December, according to the senator.

Extraordinary times

“This year finds us in extraordinary times. The 2026 national budget is being deliberated upon as the nation grapples with the corruption revealed in the flood control scandal,” Gatchalian noted.

“Public trust in our government institutions has been shaken, and so we must do everything we can to repair our social contract with the people we have sworn to serve,” he said.

SC justice reacts

In an opinion on the Supreme Court (SC) decision invalidating the move of Congress and the Department of Finance to take the P89.9-billion reserve fund of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhiHealth), Associate Justice Ramon Paul Hernando declared that the UA “in any form is unconstitutional.”

He said the inclusion of UA in the yearly budget is a mechanism introduced only as a “matter of convenience” and cannot be reconciled with the Constitution’s provisions on “expenditures and sources of financing” and the rider prohibition.

“The UA creates an unregulated space where discretion replaces discipline and where the temptations of greed and corruption inevitably find room to operate,” he said.

The UA does not relate to any appropriation of expenditures and is thus considered a rider, which is prohibited under the Constitution.

Hernando cited Article VI, Section 25(2), which prohibits any provision or enactment from being embraced in the GAB unless it “relates specifically to some particular appropriation therein.”

DepEd budget cleared

The Bicam has approved the proposed P86.8-billion increase in the Department of Education (DepEd) budget, bringing its final budget to P961.3 billion, the largest in the GAB.

According to Nueva Ecija 1st District Rep. Mikaela Suansing, head of the House appropriations committee, the biggest increase in the budget will be used to fund classrooms, textbooks, and the school-based feeding program.

Suansing said that for the school-based feeding program, the budget would increase from P13.9 billion to P11.7 billion.

Momo moves on

Meanwhile, Surigao del Sur Rep. Romeo Momo Sr. resigned as a member of the House of Representatives’ contingent to the Bicameral Conference Committee.

His resignation came on the heels of the filing of plunder charges against him in the Ombudsman that allege that a firm owned by his family bagged government contracts in his province to the tune of P1.4 billion.

Momo dismissed the case as “false, baseless and politically motivated.”

Still, he said that stepping down is necessary to prevent jeopardizing Congress’ efforts to restore public trust amid allegations of large-scale corruption in flood control projects involving lawmakers.

“Let me be clear. This courtesy resignation is not an admission of guilt. It is an affirmation of the values that must guide every public servant: honor, integrity, accountability, and respect for our institutions,” he said. “This decision reflects my respect for Congress as an institution and my belief that it must be protected above personal considerations.”

Momo was a former Undersecretary at the Department of Public Works and Highways, which has been under scrutiny after several of its officials allegedly colluded with members of Congress and private contractors to take kickbacks from infrastructure projects, particularly flood control projects.

Momo currently Chairs the House Committee on Public Works and Infrastructure and serves as a vice chair on the Appropriations Committee.

He was accused of plunder for allegedly exploiting his office to bag P1.4 billion in public works contracts for Surigao La Suerte Corporation, a firm reportedly linked to his family.