House leaders to fix 2026 budget errors in committees

House party leaders have decided not to return the proposed P6.7-trillion budget for 2026 to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) due to erroneous entries.

This decision came after party leaders met with Speaker Martin Romualdez, who suggested that not all agencies' budgets contain errors requiring a full return.

Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno and other leaders had previously flagged discrepancies in the budgets of agencies like the DPWH, DILG, and DA.

These errors included allocations for non-existent projects and duplicate entries.

Instead of returning the entire budget, House leaders agreed to conduct extended committee-level deliberations to identify and address specific issues per district.

This approach allows for pointing out individual problems during committee discussions, even if it prolongs the deliberation process.