Malacañang is confident President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will sign the proposed P7.2-trillion 2027 national budget before year-end, avoiding a repeat of last year’s delay.
In a briefing on Monday, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said the 2027 national budget should be passed by Congress on schedule, acknowledging that the process took longer than expected last year.
‘It should be,’ Castro told reporters when asked if the Palace was confident that Congress would approve the spending bill on time.
She declined to provide a timeline for the passage of the 2027 budget, saying circumstances could still change.
Despite this uncertainty, Castro said President Marcos has not yet certified the 2027 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) as urgent.
This authorizes the House of Representatives and the Senate, respectively, to approve a bill on second and third reading on the same day, bypassing the usual three-day waiting period.
The 20th Congress will go on recess from Oct. 10 to Nov. 8, with legislative work, including budget hearings, generally suspended until the regular session resumes on Nov. 9.
Current rules of both the House and Senate allow their respective committees to conduct hearings while sessions are adjourned to ensure continuity in pending legislation and oversight matters.
Castro recalled that the passage of the 2026 GAB and its transmittal to the Office of the President (OP) took longer than expected, which also delayed the Palace’s review of the measure.
Marcos was only able to sign the P6.793-trillion General Appropriations Act for 2026 on Jan. 5, as Malacañang needed about two weeks to review the enrolled GAB.
With that development, the national government worked on a reenacted 2025 budget of P6.326 trillion for five days.
Malacañang, however, downplayed the delay, saying it would not disrupt government operations.