PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. during the signing of the Republic Act No, 12314, or the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2026 on Monday, recognized Congress for the reforms instituted to craft a national budget that aligns well with the Administration’s plans and vision for the country.
“We thank all the members of Congress for the principled exercise of its power of the purse and for the meaningful reforms undertaken to widen participation and strengthen accountability throughout the budget authorization process,” the President said.
The House of Representatives (HRep) under Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III, was at the forefront of these budget process reforms, beginning with the replacement of the small committee with the Budget Amendments and Review Sub-Committee (BARSc), the institutionalization of civil society consultations in the budget process, and the conduct of the first-ever open bicameral conference committee meetings to reconcile the disagreeing votes on House Bill 4058, or the 2026 General Appropriations Bill (GAB).
Speaker Dy explained that these reforms were undertaken to make the budget process more transparent to the public.
“These reforms opened the budget process to public scrutiny. Every step and every peso can now be explained and defended before the Filipino people,” the House leader said.
He further committed that the House will exercise its oversight functions to ensure that every peso in the 2026 national budget is spent according to the provisions in the P6.793 trillion GAA.
Accompanying the Speaker onstage with the President during the signing ceremony were Senior Deputy Speaker Ferdinand Hernandez, Deputy Speaker Kristine Singson-Meehan, Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos III, Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan, Appropriations Committee Chair Mikaela Angela Suansing, and Senior Appropriations Vice Chairman Albert Garcia.
The President admitted that he himself closely monitored the livestreamed bicam proceedings, which often ran until early morning the following day.
He shared that “I was with you all the way because although I wasn’t there, I was ‘harassing’ everybody on the telephone (to get updates on what was happening).”
President Marcos also acknowledged Congress’ support for limiting unprogrammed appropriations (UA) to essential needs only.
“I pushed further and reduced it to the absolute bare minimum. This shall be at a level lowest since 2019,” he said after exercising his veto power to defund UA line items worth a total of P92.5 billion.
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