In less than a minute, the House of Representatives on Monday ratified the Bicameral Conference Committee report on the 2026 General Appropriations Bill (GAB), finally advancing the measure to Malacañang for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s signature after months of deliberations, without allowing any members to raise objections to the spending outlay.

The House briefly reconvened to ratify the bicameral report, which reconciled the conflicting provisions of the House and Senate versions of the GAB that was approved on Sunday. The session lasted roughly 10 minutes, while the ratification took less than a minute.

The House promptly adjourned the session following the ratification, though a few members voiced objections, with scattered “nays” heard during the vote.

The Senate also ratified the GAB on Monday — Congress’ last session day before it goes on a month-long break.

Initially, the House and the Senate were supposed to adjourn the session for the holidays on 22 December, but they extended the legislative calendar to give members of the Bicam ample time to deliberate on the committee report.

The Bicam report was the outcome of the harmonized versions of the House and the Senate GAB, the final version of the national budget that will be signed into law by Marcos.

The President could still veto the budget in whole or in part, as he did with the 2025 GAB. Last year, he vetoed P16.7 billion worth of items earmarked for flood control projects. Approved projects are now at the center of an ongoing investigation involving alleged corruption by lawmakers, Cabinet officials, DPWH personnel, and private contractors.

Marcos is expected to sign the 2026 GAB in the first week of January. The one-week delay is meant to give him sufficient time to review the budget, though it also means the government will be operating under a reenacted budget in the meantime.

DPWH suffered deep cut

Under the enrolled bill, the graft-tainted Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) suffered the biggest funding cut, amounting to over P300 billion.

To recall, the DPWH’s allocation for 2026 was initially set at P881.3 billion, but the House slashed P255 billion from locally funded flood control projects amid the alleged corruption in the floodgate scandal, leaving the department with only P625.7 billion. This was further trimmed to P568 billion in the GAB passed by the Senate.

The negotiations between the House and the Senate Bicam contingents, however, reached an impasse with neither camp willing to compromise. This contributed to the delay in approving the Bicam report.

Nonetheless, following several days of formal talks, House appropriations committee chairperson Mikaela Suansing said the bicam agreed to cut the DPWH’s funding to P570 billion.

At least P16.5 billion from the DPWH’s realigned funds will be redirected to PhilHealth, boosting its allocation to P129.76 billion — up from the zero government subsidy in the 2025 GAA.

The remaining funds were realigned to crucial sectors such as education, agriculture, and social aid.

Pork barrel remains

The Department of Health’s Medical Assistance for Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP) program saw its funding adjusted after the bicameral committee revised it from P24.23 billion to P51.6 billion, a boost endorsed by the Palace in the National Expenditure Program.

This comes despite mounting objections from watchdogs who had called for the abolition of the MAIFIP, dubbing it a form of “soft pork barrel” in the health sector.

The MAIFIP provides financial assistance to indigent patients to help cover their medical expenses. Critics, however, cautioned the program could be susceptible to political patronage, since it relies on guaranteed letters issued by politicians, including lawmakers.

They contend that this undermines the Universal Health Care Act, which guarantees automatic access to medical services, and gives politicians complete discretion over the budget, exposing it to potential misuse.

Aside from these programs, opposition lawmakers also flagged the 2026 national budget due to Unprogrammed Appropriations (UA), which they branded as the new face of “pork.”

The Bicam retained the P243-billion UA in the 2026 budget, unfazed by the mounting clamor to scrap it.

The amount was the allocation approved under the House GAB which was three times larger than the Senate’s proposed P68.77 billion.

The UA is intended to serve as a standby fund outside the annual national budget. The executive only releases it when there are excess revenues, foreign grants, or loans materialize to fund priority projects.

Minority lawmakers and budget watchdogs, however, have raised concerns that using the so-called standby funds for pre-planned projects, such as infrastructure and military modernization, effectively undermines the funds’ intended use, which is solely for emergencies.

Moreover, they argued that allocating such a large sum outside the GAA effectively gives Malacañang a blank check, undermining Congress’ oversight power and raising concerns of potential fund misuse and corruption.

Under the House GAB, a significant portion of the UA was earmarked for Foreign-Assisted Projects (FAP) and the Strengthening Assistance for Government Infrastructure and Social Programs (SAGIP), with allocations of P97.3 billion and P80.9 billion, respectively.

However, due to the sharp criticism, the House appropriations panel agreed to remove P35 billion worth of infrastructure projects from SAGIP. But opposition lawmakers argued there was no use defunding infrastructure from SAGIP if the allocation will be merely realigned to the FAP, whose projects are mainly related to infrastructure and have long been associated with kickbacks and corruption.

The UA had ballooned to unprecedented levels since 2023, the first full year of the Marcos administration, reaching nearly P2 trillion, though P168.2 billion was reportedly vetoed in the 2025 GAA.

In 2023 and 2024, a staggering P141 billion was allegedly charged to the UA to bankroll flood control projects.