THE GOVERNMENT is unlikely to operate under a reenacted budget next year, with Congress expected to heed the President’s warning not to deviate significantly from the Executive branch’s spending plan, Finance Secretary Ralph G. Recto said on Tuesday.
“I don’t expect a reenacted budget. I expect cooperation from Congress. In effect that’s what the President is saying. As much as possible you can amend the budget but let’s make sure we have the same priorities,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Post-State of the Nation Address (SONA) briefing.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in his fourth SONA warned legislators he would not sign a general appropriations bill that is not aligned with the National Expenditure Program (NEP).
Budget bills, if left unsigned, trigger a process in which the previous year’s budget is “reenacted,” meaning that the old budget’s spending items will be authorized, to the detriment of any new projects.
Speaker Martin G. Romualdez and other legislators in February faced legal challenges over the alleged P241 billion worth of insertions in the 2025 budget.
Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman cautioned that a budget out of line with government priorities would disrupt the project pipeline.
“If new projects are introduced that are not consistent with our existing programs, we will have difficulty implementing them. Projects will be delayed if the budget is not aligned with what was approved by the Executive,” she said at the same event.
The P6.793-trillion NEP for 2026 was completed on July 17 and must be submitted to Congress within 30 days after the opening of the regular session.
Ms. Pangandaman said the DBM hopes to submit the NEP — a document prepared by the Executive branch that serves as the basis for budget legislation — to Congress by the second week of August.
The 2026 NEP was equivalent to 22% of gross domestic product (GDP) and 7.4% higher than P6.326-trillion spending plan in 2025.
“We appeal to our lawmakers to follow President Marcos’s directive and adhere to the NEP as closely as possible,” she said.
Department of Economy, Planning, and Development Undersecretary Rosemarie G. Edillon told reporters that “our priorities remain clear — social development is still the top priority, which includes education, health, nutrition, food security, and infrastructure,” she said. — Aubrey Rose A. Inosante