House to conduct longer committee deliberations on 2026 budget instead of returning it

House leaders have decided against completely returning the proposed P6.7-trillion national budget for 2026 to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

This decision follows a meeting with Speaker Martin Romualdez, who suggested that not all agencies' budgets may contain errors.

Previously, House party leaders had considered returning the budget due to numerous errors, including zero allocations for multi-year programs and provisions for completed projects.

Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno mentioned discrepancies in the budgets of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Department of Agriculture (DA).

These discrepancies involved allocations for non-existent projects and duplicate entries.

Instead of returning the entire budget, House leaders agreed to conduct longer committee-level deliberations to identify and address errors per district allocation.