Bicam clears ’26 budget under corruption cloud

Bicam clears ’26 budget under corruption cloud | Daily Tribune

Long derided as the stage where dubious insertions quietly found their way into the national budget — most notoriously in 2025, when lawmakers and the President himself were alleged to have received billions of pesos in kickbacks — the Bicameral Conference Committee (Bicam) on Sunday signed the report reconciling conflicting provisions in the proposed P6.793-trillion budget for 2026.

Members of the bicameral panel from both the House of Representatives and the Senate signed the committee report on the 2026 General Appropriations Bill (GAB), paving the way for its ratification by both chambers scheduled for today, 29 December 2025.

The bicameral report was approved later than the original target date of 22 December after lawmakers were locked in a standoff over several key provisions, resulting in a one-week delay.

The impasse centered on funding for the graft-tainted Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and controversial programs, particularly the Medical Assistance for Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) under the Department of Health.

House Appropriations Committee chairperson Mikaela Suansing and Senate Committee on Finance chairperson Sherwin Gatchalian led the signing of the bicameral report at the Philippine International Convention Center.

Suansing said the bicameral output was a “people-centered budget” and a product of reforms aimed at greater transparency, noting that bicameral deliberations were livestreamed for the first time amid heightened public scrutiny of the budget process.

Gatchalian said the spending plan is anchored on “human development,” particularly education, health, and agriculture, which he described as critical to national development and economic growth.

He also said that the delay in finalizing the report was due to efforts to make the budget clearer and easier for the public to understand, as part of an attempt to restore trust in government.

Printed copy

“This document is about 4,300 pages and was read five times before approval,” Gatchalian said, adding that the report, including its annexes, will be uploaded to the transparency portals of both chambers once ratified.

He noted that this was the first time lawmakers were shown a printed copy of the reconciled enrolled budget before ratification.

The signing advances the GAB to the ratification stage, where the bicameral report will be sent back to both chambers for final approval.

Congress will briefly resume session today to ratify the report, after which the enrolled bill will be transmitted to Malacañang for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s signature.

Although the President may still veto the bill in whole or in part, as he did with the 2025 budget, Malacañang has said Marcos is now expected to sign the 2026 budget into law in early January to allow more time for review, according to Acting Executive Secretary Ralph Recto.

In his fourth State of the Nation Address in July, Marcos warned Congress that he would not approve a budget that deviates from the Malacañang-endorsed National Expenditure Program (NEP), even if it resulted in a reenacted budget.

His warning followed reports of billions of pesos in alleged backdoor insertions in the 2025 General Appropriations Act, which critics blamed largely on the bicameral process and derided as the “most corrupt” budget in Philippine history.

The 2025 budget, initially set at P6.352 trillion, was reduced to P6.326 trillion after Marcos vetoed P194 billion worth of line items, including P16.7 billion for flood control projects now under investigation for alleged corruption involving lawmakers, Cabinet officials, DPWH personnel, and private contractors.

Alleged kickbacks

It may be recalled that expelled Rep. Zaldy Co, who headed the House of Representatives’ Bicam panel in 2024 for the 2025 budget, alleged that Marcos and his cousin, former Speaker Martin Romualdez, received billions in kickbacks from the “Floodgate” scandal that erupted this year.

Co said the money was delivered to the residences of Marcos and Romualdez, an allegation that the two officials had denied.

For 2026, Suansing said the bicameral panel agreed to cut DPWH funding to about P570 billion from the proposed P881.3 billion. More than P300 billion was reallocated to priority sectors such as health, education, and agriculture, including P255 billion originally earmarked for flood control.

A significant portion of the realigned funds went to PhilHealth, amounting to P16.52 billion, as lawmakers sought to offset the zero subsidy given to the state insurer in the current year’s budget.

Despite the cuts, the bicameral panel retained contentious unprogrammed appropriations and programs often criticized as “pork,” including MAIFIP and the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations.

Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson (See related story) earlier urged continued public vigilance even after the budget’s passage, stressing that safeguards written into the 2026 budget would matter little without strict and transparent implementation.