November 13, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Senate finance committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian yesterday sponsored the proposed P6.793 trillion national budget in 2026, paving the way for plenary debates on the national outlay.
In his sponsorship speech, Gatchalian touted the Senate’s “historic” budget increase for education – at P992.7 billion in the Senate version of the budget for the Department of Education, an increase from the House of Representatives version of P914 billion.
The Senate also increased the classroom construction budget to P68 billion, from P48.7 billion in the House version and P15.25 billion in the National Expenditure Program.
The classroom construction budget is enough to construct 19,000 to 27,000 new classrooms, to plug the 147,000 classroom backlog and repair the more than 5,000 classrooms damaged in the recent typhoons.
Amid allegations of corruption in flood control projects, Gatchalian said the Senate reduced the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways to P568.56 billion, a significant P55.91 billion decrease from the House version at P624.48 billion.