MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has started reviewing the differences between the National Expenditure Program (NEP) and the 2026 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) approved in the bicameral conference committee, Malacañang said on Tuesday, about a week before the expected ratification and turnover of the spending plan from Congress to the executive branch.
“As early as now, the President is already mobilizing his team to facilitate the immediate review of all amounts and corresponding provisions agreed in the bi-cam and trace the changes made from the originally submitted National Expenditure Program (NEP),” Communications Secretary Dave Gomez said in a statement.
“This thorough review will ensure that taxpayers’ money will be put to good use, contributing to the attainment of societal goals that will be felt by all Filipinos, consistent with his pronouncement in the last State of the Nation Address,” he said.
“The President will be spending the holidays working.”
Last week, House and Senate leaders announced that the 2026 budget bill would most likely be ratified on December 29, giving Marcos only around 2 days to review the spending plan before the current budget expires on the first day of 2026.
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Should Marcos fail to sign the budget into law on December 31, the Philippines will have a reenacted budget, which means that the 2025 General Appropriations Act — the last approved budget — will be retained until such a time that a new GAA is enacted.
The Palace earlier said that the President remained optimistic that the Philippines would not have a reenacted budget, even if the 2026 budget hurdled the bicameral conference committee way beyond its initial deadline due to debates and deadlocks over the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
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Several members of the House Minority bloc earlier said that they intended to vote against the passage of the 2026 budget next week, citing some P200 billion in unappropriated funds.
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