MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives has approved amendments to the calendar of the 20th Congress’ first regular session, with plenary session set to resume on December 29 in time for the ratification of the proposed 2026 national budget.
During the session on Monday, House Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander Marcos moved to amend the calendar, moving the last session day for 2025 from December 22 to December 29, and adjournment from December 23 to December 30.
This schedule is meant to allow the bicameral conference committee to submit its final report on the disagreeing provisions on the 2026 General Appropriations Bill (GAB).
The committee wrapped up early Thursday morning, following delays due to wrong computation of the reduction of project costs of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
“Mr. Speaker, I manifest before this body that additional time is required to complete the preparation and ratification of the conference committee report on the General Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2026,” Marcos said.
“The ratification of the said committee report is imperative to ensure the continuity of government operations and the faithful implementation of the national budget for the ensuing fiscal year,” the lawmaker noted.
“Accordingly, and having been informed that the Senate will make a similar motion to amend the legislative calendar, I move to amend anew the legislative calendar particularly, on the resumption of session from December 22, 2025 to December 29, 2025; and on the adjournment of session, from December 23, 2025 to December 30, 2025,” he added.
House Deputy Speaker Yevgeny Emano approved the motion after no one objected.
The issue with the DPWH budget has led to several delays in the bicameral conference.
Last December 14, the committee started almost two hours late as the Senate and the House separately went into a huddle before Secretary Vince Dizon made his presentation on the miscalculations in the Senate’s version reduced costs for 10,000 projects.
According to Dizon’s presentation, the P45 billion from the DPWH budget made by the Senate was wrong, as instead of making the reductions on the price of materials only, the Senate implemented the cut on the entire project cost — which led to some DPWH projects to be underfunded and possibly unimplementable.
The House contingent, headed by Nueva Ecija 1st District Rep. Mikaela Suansing, then moved to suspend the meeting at 8:14 p.m., resuming only by 10:33 p.m.
Both Suansing and Senate contingent head Senator Sherwin Gatchalian moved for the suspension of the bicameral discussions.
Another delay, however, came last December 15, as Gatchalian announced in a briefing that the Senate was looking to postpone the discussions.
The House contingent still arrived at the bicameral meeting area inside the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City, but the conference eventually failed to push through as senators did not show up.
The next day, the committee decided to temporarily skip discussions on DPWH allocation, as the Senate team is still working on the new numbers based on the correct percentage reduction for projects.
With the new calendar, Malacañang will have two days only — December 30 and 31 — to sign the budget into law, before government is forced to adopt a reenacted budget.
Under Article VI, Section 25 of the 1987 Constitution, the country will have a reenacted budget, or will use the budget of a previous year, if “by the end of any fiscal year, the Congress shall have failed to pass the general appropriations bill for the ensuing fiscal year.”
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