Pres. Bongbong Marcos Speaks on 2026 Proposed National Budget
BONGBONG MARCOS – The President admitted that the 2026 proposed budget needs to be cleaned out amid the questionable allocations.
The National Expenditure Program or NEP prepared by the executive department has been submitted to the House of Representatives already. It is asking for a P6.793 trillion budget for 2026.
Previously, following the submission of the NEP to the lower chamber for the budget scrutiny, Pres. Bongbong Marcos urged the Congress to “swiftly enact” the 2026 proposed national budget. He called for cooperation with the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Despite the huge cut on the proposed budget for the House of Representatives. presidential cousin and Speaker Martin Romualdez previously said that the House will scrutinize the 2026 proposed budget not as adversaries of the executive department but as allies. The Office of the President is asking for a P27.362 billion budget for next year — far from P15.9 billion approved budget for Marcos’ office this year.
With regards to the proposed budget for the House of Representatives, it is down by P16.8 billion under the 2026 proposed budget. Here are the proposed budget for the different key departments in the government:
- Department of Education (DepEd) — P928.5 billion
- Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) — P881.3 billion
- Department of Health (DOH) — P320.5 billion
- Department of National Defense (DND) — P299.3 billion
- Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) — P287.5 billion
- Department of Agriculture (DA) — P239.2 billion
- Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) — P227.0 billion
- Department of Transportation (DOTr) — P197.3 billion
- Judiciary Department — P67.9 billion
- Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) — P55.2 billion
However, amid the budget deliberation in the House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno claimed that there are allegedly several items in the 2026 NEP that contained budget requests for completed projects.
Amid the claim of Puno, Pres. Bongbong Marcos admitted that the NEP for the 2026 proposed budget needs to be cleaned out. He stressed that there are a lot of ‘insertions’. He made the remarks while he discussed the commission that he plans to create to probe the anomalous infrastructure projects of the government.
‘The more we look, the more we find. Kahit sa 2026 budget, marami pa ring siningit. So… it really needs to be cleaned out properly,” the President said.
Based on a report on Inquirer, the President claimed that his office is already drafting the executive order for the creation of the team that will investigate the supposed anomalous infrastructure projects funded by the government. However, he admitted that they have yet to finalize the structure of the team including the number of its members.
Over the proposed budget for next year, the office of Pres. Bongbong Marcos is poised to get the biggest share from the confidential and intelligence funds proposed for 2026. The office of Vice Pres. Sara Duterte did not request for CIF.