23 articles
Speaker Dy has pledged to "scrutinize every centavo" of the ₱7.2-trillion national budget. Congress's own ₱27.89-billion slice cleared the floor on Sept. 17 with zero interpellation — because, lawmakers said, there was no one left in the chamber to ask.
The release pace trails 2025's rate for the same period, with the Department of Agriculture down nearly 28 percentage points from a year ago even as DPWH — the agency at the center of the flood-control corruption scandal — hits a near-perfect 99.5%.
Speaker Dy pledges to "scrutinize every centavo" as lawmakers push the ₱644-billion DPWH infrastructure budget — including a reduced ₱107.4-billion flood-control allocation — toward an Oct. 9 third-reading target.
The Senate finance committee endorsed a 7.1% budget increase for the interior department to plenary, even as senators raised questions about equipment shortfalls, an additional ₱200-million request for confidential funds, and a recruitment corruption scheme within the Bureau of Fire Protection.
Rep. Antonio Tinio says DOLE's ballooning Tupad emergency-jobs fund — potentially climbing to ₱24.5 billion in 2027 — is turning the labor department into an "aid-distributing agency" at the expense of its core worker-protection mandate.
The People's Budget Coalition says roughly a tenth of President Marcos' proposed ₱7.2-trillion 2027 national budget — split between "soft pork," "hard pork" and "shadow pork" — carries elevated risk of political discretion and transparency problems as Congress begins its review.
The House appropriations committee began a 53-day review of the proposed 2027 national budget with a Development Budget Coordination Committee briefing, as leadership pledges transparency and the Senate faces questions over an alleged per-senator "leadership fund" in the DPWH budget raised in Sandiganbayan testimony.
Budget documents submitted to Congress alongside the proposed ₱7.2-trillion 2027 national budget show the Marcos administration raising its gross borrowing target to ₱3.3 trillion, pushing debt service costs to a record ₱2.70 trillion even as the debt-to-GDP ratio already sits at a 21-year high.
The Department of Budget and Management handed President Marcos the proposed 2027 National Expenditure Program on Aug. 10, with Malacañang set to formally transmit the ₱7.2-trillion spending plan — the largest ever proposed — to Congress on Aug. 11, days ahead of the constitutional deadline.
Faustino Dy III says the chamber will build on last year's transparency reforms as the Marcos administration prepares to transmit the National Expenditure Program to Congress before the August 14 constitutional deadline, even as the government's own budget agency warns of "very narrow fiscal space."
