MANILA – With the fiscal clock ticking perilously close to midnight, Malacañang on Tuesday implored Congress – particularly the Senate – to fast-track deliberations on the P6.793-trillion 2026 national budget, warning against a reenactment of the scandal-tainted 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has branded the “most corrupt” in history due to alleged graft-riddled insertions, duplicate projects, and welfare-skimming diversions. The plea, voiced amid mounting delays from a weekend Senate fire and procedural snags, underscores the administration’s zero-tolerance for fiscal folly as the holiday recess looms.
Palace Press Undersecretary Claire Castro didn’t mince words during a briefing, channeling Marcos’ frustration with the bicameral ballet. “They should be speeding up their work,” she pressed, adding, “We all know that the President does not want a reenacted budget. So as much as possible, let’s move faster, even if time is tight. Hopefully, we can speed things up.” The urgency stems from Marcos’ July fourth State of the Nation Address vow: He would veto any GAA misaligned with priorities or riddled with misuse, potentially forcing the government to limp along under the 2025 GAA’s P6.326-trillion shadow – a blueprint lambasted by watchdogs for ballooning infrastructure pork while starving social nets.
The 2026 saga kicked off August 13 with the Department of Budget and Management’s (DBM) National Expenditure Program (NEP) submission, a P6.793-trillion blueprint prioritizing anti-corruption firewalls like defunding locally sourced DPWH flood projects to carve out P255.5 billion for social lifelines. The House zipped through its General Appropriations Bill (GAB) by October 13 on third reading, but the Senate’s timeline teeters: Finance Committee Chair Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian eyes a December 9 final GAB nod, with the bicameral conference committee wrapping by December 16 before the break. Presidential signing? Slated for December 29, leaving a razor-thin window for tweaks.
Delays? Plenty. A Friday interpellation extension chewed into amendment time, and Sunday’s blaze that doused the session hall forced a Monday scrub. Gatchalian admitted the squeeze: “The ratification is on December 17. That means they will have to work overtime to prepare the enrolled copy. And if you look at the signing in Malacañang, it’s on December 29 – just two days before the New Year. So it’s quite tight.” Senate President Vicente Sotto III echoed the heat, slamming the 2025 GAA as “the most corrupt” and vowing no rerun: “We were already delayed by one day… So it really can’t be postponed tomorrow.”
The stakes? Sky-high. Reenactments – five since 2000, four under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo – breed irregular spending and fiscal fog, as critics warn. Marcos’ reforms, like realigning P255.5 billion to medical aid and emergency jobs post-Uwan and Tino typhoons, hinge on a clean slate. Contention brews in bicam: AFP modernization funds, P249 billion in unprogrammed pots, and disaster rehab allocations. Lacson dismissed reenactment fears: “It’s not going to happen.”
For a nation reeling from graft’s flood – from pork probes to phantom builds – Marcos’ nudge isn’t nagging; it’s necessity. As the bicam barrels toward December 16, the Palace’s plea rings like a holiday hymn: Speed up, or the ghosts of 2025 will haunt us all.