Lawmaker seeks clarity on 2025 budget before 2026 talks

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor 

MANILA — A House deputy speaker said legal and constitutional issues surrounding the 2025 national budget should be resolved before Congress deliberates on the proposed 2026 budget.

House Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno, chair of the National Unity Party, said their party has agreed not to start 2026 budget deliberations until the “mysteries” and “miracles” in the 2025 budget are clarified.

“It is hard to start the new budget when the old budget is not yet finished,” Puno said in a press conference on Aug. 12, stressing that the national budget is a law and must be implemented with transparency.

The 2025 budget has been controversial over alleged unconstitutional priority allocations, insertion of “pork barrel” projects, questionable legislative maneuvers, and funding cuts in sectors such as education and health.

The Department of Public Works and Highways reportedly received around PHP1.113 trillion, exceeding the Department of Education’s PHP737 billion allocation.

Subsidies for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. were cut by PHP74 billion, allegedly due to its reserve funds, despite certain excise taxes being legally earmarked for the agency.

Puno said the House should not be blamed for these changes, explaining that the version it approved and submitted to the Senate kept the PhilHealth budget intact, increased the DepEd budget, and reduced the DPWH allocation.

“We want to know who replaced it. How did that happen? Who really removed it? […] It did not happen in the House because when we submitted it to the Senate, it was intact,” he said.

He clarified that he is not accusing senators but wants to know who benefited from the alterations, particularly in the DPWH budget.

“It’s hard to pre-judge, even though we know it didn’t come from the House of Representatives. We cannot say it was made by the Senate because the Senate is big,” he said.

Puno said their party simply wants clarifications and recognizes that judicial remedies are available if wrongdoing is proven.

He also said discussions on the 2025 budget would not necessarily delay the 2026 budget process.

“We just want to clarify the mystery of the 2025 budget,” he said.