Two senators expressed support for forming a Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Public Expenditures, which will closely monitor budget utilization and implementation.

For Senator Erwin Tulfo, oversight is necessary to safeguard the spending of the 2026 budget.

"I agree that there should be oversight to monitor this spending in the 2026 budget because we just came out of 2025, where the budget was squandered. Of course, we have to make sure this doesn't happen again this year," Tulfo said in Filipino.

"We need to send people from the Senate and Congress to those areas randomly so they can check if there really is a project like this or that," he added.

Meanwhile, Senator Loren Legarda said the reform is vital to ensure that every peso in the national budget is spent with integrity, transparency, and in line with the country’s development priorities.

Legarda noted that the joint oversight body of the Senate and House of Representatives, already established under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) 2026 and in previous GAAs, should be formally activated and function regularly to carry out its mandate fully.

“This oversight committee is not about micromanaging agencies. It will ensure that funds meant for hospitals, classrooms, farms, and disaster resilience do not get lost to delays, waste, or misuse,” she stressed.

Legarda warned that chronic underspending, poorly designed projects, and implementation leakages translate directly into unfinished roads, overcrowded hospitals, and communities left vulnerable to disasters.

“Every time an agency sits on its budget or fails to implement it properly, it translates to a family waiting longer for a health center, a student losing a chance at quality education, a farmer still without irrigation,” she said.

Idle appropriations, she added, weaken government performance and directly affect citizens waiting for services.

“Funds that remain idle are not savings. They represent targets not achieved, services delayed, and opportunities lost. Underspending driven by weak expenditure and procurement capacity imposes a real cost on public programs,” Legarda said.

She also cautioned that leaving budgets unused prevents the government from channeling funds to agencies with stronger track records.

“When budgets are unused, resources that could have been realigned to agencies with stronger implementation records and proven sectoral impact remain locked in underperforming programs. This distorts efficient resource allocation and undermines equity in public spending,” she said.

Legarda emphasized that a strong oversight committee "will compel agencies to fix bottlenecks early and prove they are turning appropriations into tangible results."

Earlier, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said the oversight committee will be jointly constituted with the House of Representatives and co-chaired by the chairpersons of the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Committee on Appropriations.