Speaker Faustino ‘Bojie’ Dy III has assured the public that the House of Representatives will continue working towards a clean and effective budget for 2026, as plenary debates on the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) end.
Dy, in a statement early Friday morning said that he will fulfill the promise he made when he was elected speaker – that each centavo of the budget will be aligned with the people’s needs.
‘Our fellow Filipinos can expect an open and transparent budget-making process,’ Dy said in Filipino.
‘I said this when I was elected speaker, we would ensure that each centavo that would be appropriated will correspond to the needs of our people. We will continue working towards passing a budget that is open to the people, in order, and clean,’ he added.
Dy also thanked members of the House for their tireless work in scrutinizing the proposed budget, as there were several instances wherein plenary debates which started at 10:00 a.m. reached way past 2:00 a.m. of the next day.
Similarly, Dy thanked different agencies that helped the House committee on appropriations craft and defend the budget.
Several reforms initiated before former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez stepped down – like the removal of the small committee that makes changes to the proposed budget after third reading approval, and the opening of the budget deliberations to civil society organizations – continued up to Dy’s term.
Last September 22, the Budget Amendments Review Sub-committee (BARSc) discussed realignments involving the P255.5 billion budget cut suffered by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), part of which were realigned to social aid, health programs, and a higher education budget.
One of the amendments made by the BARSc was to realign P37.30 billion of the P255.5 billion DPWH funds to the education sector instead – including P22.5 billion for the construction of new classrooms and the provision of school equipment; and P6.619 billion for the Tertiary Education Subsidy and P2.693 billion for the Tulong Dunong Program of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd).
The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will also get a P60 billion subsidy, while P32.06 billion will go to the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations program of the the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Last September 26, appropriations committee chairperson and Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing announced that that there will be a special provision in the 2026 GAB that would compel the CHEd to release P7.821 billion for the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act (UAQTEA) deficits.
Suansing then said that the remaining P4.486 billion will be appropriated by the House as part of its GAB.
This means that starting 2026, there would be a zero deficit due to the UAQTEA implementation. /gsg