LEADERS of various political parties in the House of Representatives on Wednesday decided to recommend to Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez the return of what they described as a “mangled” proposed P6.793-trillion 2026 national budget to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).
Speaking for his group in the presence of leaders of other political parties, Deputy Speaker and Antipolo Rep. Ronaldo Puno, who is National Unity Party (NUP) chairman, briefed journalists in a press conference on their decision.
“We have decided as a group to recommend to the Speaker the return of the 2026 budget to the DBM because we do not know how to deal with it. We have to practically redo the entire submission to us, and we do not want to be suspected of any untoward action,” Puno said.
“So we have decided that in good conscience, we cannot begin deliberations on this national budget, and we owe it to all of you that this is allocated properly, transparency, free of corruption. And we believe that at this point, the NEP (National Expenditure Program) submitted by the DBM falls short of that standard,” he said.
In the meantime, he said members of political parties who comprise an overwhelming majority of the House of Representatives have asked to refrain from participating in any budget hearing.
Puno recalled that “last week or even earlier, we explained to you our misgivings about the budget with respect to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), how district budgets all over the country were mangled, and how really serious, serious questions needed to be raised about those budget entries.”
He said political party leaders “have been watching all of the developments, we have been constantly talking to one another day and night to discuss the problems that have arisen with respect to the 2026 proposed budget.”
“We raised questions about whether or not the DBM was handling the budget preparations properly, and whether or not what was coming to us (which was the NEP) was a result of irresponsibility or some oversight that can be justified.”
“And we have worked with the DBM very closely on how to settle all these things,” he said.
The NUP chairman also highlighted the statement of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. in his State of the Nation Address last July 28 that he won’t accept a mangled budget.
He noted that the President has also asked newly appointed DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon “to do a comprehensive review of everything, not just the organization but the (agency) budget.”
“So we want to be true to what the President’s wishes,” he stressed.
Puno revealed that there were similar irregularities that have been discovered in the budgets of other agencies.
As an example, he cited the Department of Agriculture, where he said P10-billion worth of farm-to-market road projects were “being peddled to other parties.”
He said party leaders do not believe that it should be the House that should make the necessary corrections in the budget.
“We don’t want to be accused of replacing or amending by errata a huge portion of the budget…There has been enough and too much mistrust already going around, especially with respect to the House of Representatives, and we don’t want this to continue. So we toss it back to the DBM so that they can find a logical explanation and resolution to this thing,” he said.
He said they have asked the opinion of the legal office of the House, “whether this is possible. Whether we can we return the NEP to the DBM.”
He added that it was the legal office’s view that the House would be justified in returning the budget in returning the budget to the DBM so the latter can make corrections, and that there is nothing against it in the Constitution and the law.
The NUP chairman pointed out that returning the budget to the DBM “for corrections will be more systematic and practical, and instead of us having to correct the district budgets of more than 250 districts, perhaps the DBM can now do what it should have done in the first place and correct these matters before they send it (back) to us.”
“So, this is the position that the party leaders have taken, and we hope that you will all understand our intention that this thing be resolved correctly and properly. We, in the House were the ones who first discovered all of these things…We do not believe that we should fix what other people caused. We are not the ones that should fix the problems that have begun in other places,” he emphasized.
“Ayaw namin na kami masisisi dito eh. Na naman. Kasi bibigyan kami ng problema eh. Ang binigay sa amin problema na bawat distrito kailangan baguhin, kailangan i-correct. Tapos pag i-correct namin ‘yan, sisisihin na naman kami for whatever else will happen after that,” he aid.
“What they should do is come up with a budget that when it comes to Congress, to the House of Representatives, kakaunti na lang ang kailangan ayusin ulit. But what we are looking at now is a budget that we, in a very, very real way, have to amend in huge portions. And I don’t believe that that is what is called for from the House of Representatives,” he said.
He noted that other departments “are pointing fingers at the DBM, the DBM is pointing fingers at the other departments.”
“We feel they should settle their disputes first, come up with the correct budget formulations before they send them to us, so that we can reasonably proceed on the path that is required moving forward,” he said.
Asked whether returning the proposed budget to the DBM may result in the reenactment of the P6.3-trillion 2025 budget, Puno said some party leaders actually find such prospect a “good idea.”
He said a reenacted budget means that President Marcos would exclusively decide where to allocate the recycled outlay.
Other political parties involved in the collective decision to return the proposed budget include the NUP, Nationalist People’s Coalition, Nacionalista Party and Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats, the largest political group in Congress and in the country.
