THE House Committee on Appropriations yesterday approved the proposed P27.362 billion budget of the Office of the President for 2026 after lawmakers voted to honor the tradition of granting the Executive parliamentary courtesy despite the rift between House party leaders and the Cabinet over alleged insertions and errors in the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP).
The OP’s proposed budget, however, was only approved at the committee level after lawmakers questioned Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin over the Cabinet’s written statement denouncing congressmen for blaming the Executive for questionable provisions in the proposed P6.793 trillion national budget for 2026.
Before lawmakers voted 56-5 in favor of the motion to approve the OP budget, Bersamin told congressmen, on the questioning of House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan, that “we (in the Executive) do not intend to rile up the tension between our departments (the Executive and the Legislative).”
“We’ve emphasized in our opening statement that we come here seeking your support for our institutional budget,” he said, adding that there was nothing “intended that is malicious or to malign the House of Representatives” in the Cabinet’s earlier statement accusing lawmakers of “attempting to shift the blame for their own corruption and failures onto the Executive branch.”
Speaker Martin Romualdez sought to downplay the rift between the Cabinet and House members, saying the exchanges about the budget “should not be seen as a clash between institutions but as a demonstration of accountability in action.”
“This is not a clash of institutions. It is a partnership in accountability and service. The House stands united with the President and his Cabinet to restore trust, ensure transparency, and deliver a budget that is credible, acceptable, and beneficial to every Filipino,” he said in a statement.
The Speaker thanked President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s call for calm, saying the House also acknowledges the “dedicated work of the Cabinet in preparing the National Expenditure Program (NEP).”
“If our deliberations have caused any discomfort, we ask for understanding. The House’s duty is not to cast blame but to ensure that every peso in the budget is transparent, accountable and truly for the people,” Romualdez said. “We recognize that there are issues that must be addressed, and we begin by putting our own House in order. Walang exempted — kasama kami diyan (No ones is exempted there-even us).”
Romualdez said the House stands firm in its partnership with the Executive, under the leadership of the President, “to strengthen the budget process and to make sure that government resources are used wisely and well.”
House party leaders led by Deputy Speaker Ronaldo last week blamed the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and other departments for alleged insertions and errors in the 2026 NEP, saying it was unfair that only congressmen have always been blamed when there are insertions made at the level of the Executive branch, a co-equal branch of the Legislative.
The group however aborted the plan on the advice of Romualdez and after Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon vowed to address the issues and correct the errors in the budget.
In response, Bersamin, in a statement last Saturday, told lawmakers to “clean their House first.”
During the hearing, Bersamin thanked Libanan for addressing what he said was the “elephant in the room,” saying the Cabinet’s statement was only meant “to stress our institutional separation from the House of Representatives.”
“Some of those members and I hope it is not the majority, made statements that we in Cabinet are against institutional separation of powers,” Bersamin said. “So we came out with that statement that is the consensus of the Cabinet. It was more to emphasize our constitutional position and separation and to elicit support and cooperation from the House of Representatives more than any other.”
Bersamin however said the Executive will not “shirk” from the Cabinet’s statement “or avoid the impact.”
Libanan later moved to have the consideration of the OP’s proposed budget terminated after the clarificatory questions by some members of the House minority, led by Rep. Antonio Tinio (PL, ACT), who objected to the motion, saying “now of all times is not the time for parliamentary courtesy but for full transparency, especially in the budget of the Office of the President.”
Out of the OP’s P27 billion budget for 2026, P4.5 billion will be the President’s confidential and intelligence funds (CIF), the same issue that the House used to impeach Vice President Sara Duterte in 2025.
Tinio, a member of the Makabayan bloc, said the President, himself, was the first to raise the issues hounding the national budget, especially when he assailed the ghost and substandard flood control projects in his last State of the Nation Address.
“Nagbanta pa nga siya na handa siayang magkaroon ng reenacted budget so bakit ngayon pinipigilan pagbulatlat sa budget? (He even threatened, saying he was prepared for a reenacted budget next year so why stop the scrutiny of the budget)?” he said, before the panel voted to terminate the budget hearing.
The militant lawmaker said that while insertions are made in Congress, the President also has accountability because corruption happens in the execution of the budget.
“It is the Executive that awards the contracts to contractors, they’re the ones who pay even if there are ghost projects,” Tinio said in Filipino, adding that that parliamentary courtesy can be withdrawn.
Palawan Rep. Jose Alvarez of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) told Bersamin before the end of the hearing that there was nothing wrong with the suggestion of party leaders last week to strip the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) the power to identify which areas need flood control funds and transfer it to the OP.
“For now, let’s remove it from the submission of the DPWH here in Congress so that the OP, led by Sec. Bersamin, will be in the one to decide where to put that funding,” he said in Filipino.
The quarrel between the Cabinet and some House party leaders appear to have simmered down after Bersamin and the Speaker shook hands following the approval of the OP’s budget at the House committee level.
The two officials engaged in a cordial exchange when Bersamin paid Romualdez a courtesy call at his office at the House of Representatives where they were joined by other leaders led by presidential son Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander Marcos.
