Marcos to sign 2026 nat’l budget on Jan. 5 — Recto

By Chloe Mari A. Hufana, Reporter

PHILIPPINE President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. will sign the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA) on Jan. 5, 2026, according to Executive Secretary Ralph G. Recto on Tuesday.

“[We] will need time to go over the budget,” Mr. Recto told BusinessWorld via Viber. “A one-week reenacted budget will not affect government operations. In fact, a careful review of the budget prepares the Executive [to execute] it properly.”

Mr. Marcos was initially expected to sign the spending plan on Dec. 29, but there were delays in the bicameral conference committee’s proceedings as lawmakers needed more time to scrutinize the national budget for red flags.

The proposed 2026 GAA is facing heightened scrutiny after claims surfaced that this year’s national budget included billions of pesos in unprogrammed allocations.

Despite this, the bicameral committee cleared P243 billion in standby funds, reversing earlier efforts to rein in the mechanism after the Senate version cut the allocation to P174.55 billion — about P68.66 billion below the P243.22 billion approved by the House.

Such funds are contentious because, while they are meant to provide flexibility for emergencies or unforeseen expenditures, excessive or opaque use can undermine accountability.

The panel also faced an impasse over the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) budget for next year, following a massive graft scandal involving flood control projects. There was a standoff over a P45-billion reduction in the DPWH budget, with senators standing by the cuts even as Public Works Secretary Vivencio “Vince” B. Dizon and the Presidential Palace warned that failure to reinstate the funds could weigh on the economy.

Congress is set to approve the bicameral conference report on the national budget by Dec. 28, followed by its ratification on Dec. 29

Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III earlier this week flagged the possibility that the Philippine government will start operations in 2026 under a reenacted budget.

Mr. Sotto said that if the enrolled copy is not ready on time, the government could default to last year’s appropriations through the first week of January, a scenario that policymakers have been trying to avoid.

Failure to pass a new appropriations measure triggers the automatic reenactment of the prior year’s budget, a scenario analysts said could undermine economic growth goals and delay the rollout of priority government projects.

Mr. Sotto reiterated his opposition to “blind ratification,” underscoring concerns about opaque allocations, even as the Palace urged Congress to expedite approval to avert budget reenactment.

Also on Tuesday, Press Secretary Dave M. Gomez said Mr. Marcos will review the spending plan over the holidays.

The President has already tasked his team to conduct an immediate and comprehensive review of all allocations and provisions approved by the bicameral conference committee, tracing any adjustments made from the originally submitted National Expenditure Program, Mr. Gomez said.

“This thorough review will ensure that taxpayers’ money will be put to good use, contributing to the attainment of societal goals that will be felt by all Filipinos, consistent with his pronouncement in the last State of the Nation Address,” he added in a Viber chat to reporters.

Ederson DT. Tapia, a political science professor from the University of Makati, said a briefly reenacted budget, while not disastrous, is far from neutral.

It confines the government to the previous year’s appropriations, preventing funding for new programs and delaying capital outlays, infrastructure projects and program expansions, he noted.

“For departments implementing time-sensitive programs, even a short reenactment can create bottlenecks that ripple into the first quarter,” he said via Facebook Messenger.

However, the impact of the reenacted budget will be manageable if the new budget is approved swiftly. Predictability and timely enactment remain key, making brief reenactments an administrative inconvenience rather than a fiscal crisis, though avoiding them altogether is preferable, he noted.

Hansley A. Juliano, a political science lecturer at the Ateneo de Manila University, said delays in passing the national budget are unusual compared with previous administrations and raise questions about the Marcos government’s legislative efficiency, even if officials frame them as technical issues.

The Philippines has previously run on reenacted budgets under past administrations, most recently in 2019, when then-President Rodrigo R. Duterte enacted the spending law only in April.

While a delayed or reenacted budget may not immediately disrupt government operations, Mr. Juliano warned it could create uncertainty, particularly over the timely payment of salaries for public sector workers, underscoring the need for clearer guidance on what would be affected.

“I can imagine not affecting operations much, but there is always the worry of how it may impact salaries for public sector employees,” he said via Facebook Messenger.