P7.2-T budget, tax relief among legislative agenda

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate will put the P7.2-trillion 2027 budget on top of its agenda when it resumes session on Monday after its month-long break, with senators vowing tighter scrutiny and greater budget transparency.

The House of Representatives, meanwhile, is seeking to fast-track President Marcos’ priority measures, including tax relief for workers, the removal of system loss charges from electricity bills and reforms to the partylist system.

Under the Senate calendar, interpellations on the budget’s general principles will run from Nov. 23 to Dec. 1. The chamber is scheduled to approve the measure on second reading on Dec. 3 and third reading on Dec. 7. Bicameral conference committee deliberations are set for Dec. 10 to 12, with the report to be signed on Dec. 21 and ratified on Dec. 22.

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Bicam transparency

Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said the Senate would push for livestreaming of bicameral proceedings and transcripts to establish who proposed amendments and who pushed for realignments in the final budget.

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READ: Senate to release transcripts of 2027 budget bicam proceedings – Lacson

“In the bicam, the minutes of the proceedings should be recorded through a transcript. The budget bill is the only measure whose bicameral proceedings do not have a transcript, so we cannot trace who made what amendment,” Lacson said in a radio interview on Sunday.

“There should be a transcript containing the minutes so it will be clear who initiated amendments and who pushed for realignments,” he added.

READ: JV, Lacson: Budget ‘bicam’ open to all, sparing none

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He warned that some lawmakers made insertions twice—first in the National Expenditure Program submitted by the executive, and again after it was transmitted to Congress.

“It’s double kill,” he said.

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He urged budget advocacy groups not only to be vigilant but also to “resort to shaming lawmakers who sneak in questionable realignments.”

Questionable projects

Earlier, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian vowed to remove P8.836 billion worth of infrastructure projects from the proposed budget because the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) failed to provide essential technical documents.

“The Senate is committed unequivocally in weeding out unsubstantiated line items, including those lacking concrete and verifiable technical support, to ensure that every item in the final version is shovel-ready,” Gatchalian said last Tuesday.“Unverifiable line items will not receive a single peso of public funding,” he added.

Gatchalian’s office found that 7,107, or more than 62 percent, of 11,395 infrastructure projects examined had at least one major budgetary irregularity, including missing station numbers or geographic coordinates, lump-sum allocations, overlapping projects and conflicting work descriptions.

Civil society watchdogs have separately flagged more than P1 trillion in allocations in the House-approved budget that they consider questionable or vulnerable to political patronage.

The People’s Budget Coalition and other groups classified the items into P695 billion in “hard pork,” P210 billion in “soft pork” and P112 billion in “shadow pork.”

Malacañang has warned that Marcos will veto amendments lacking proper documentation, clear project descriptions and legitimate purposes.

“The President’s directive is clear: public funds must not be abused. Public funds should be used for the people, not go into anyone’s pockets,” Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said.

House priorities

In the House, Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III has cited tax relief and lower electricity costs among the administration’s priorities

The proposed tax measure would raise the annual personal income tax threshold to P350,000 from P250,000, increasing take-home pay for lower- and middle-income workers.

“That is why we are pushing for tax relief for workers,” Dy said in October. “This also includes proposals aimed at improving the supply and lowering the price of electricity.”

Lawmakers are also pushing to remove system loss charges from power bills, which critics say add to the burden on households facing high electricity costs.

The House is likewise pursuing reforms to the partylist system, designed to give marginalized sectors representation but criticized over claims that wealthy interests and political dynasties have captured the mechanism.

Tingog Rep. Jude Acidre, a member of the House committee on suffrage and electoral reforms, said the proposed bill seeks to ensure partylist groups genuinely represent the constituencies they claim to serve.

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“The manner of representation actually evolved,” Acidre said. “However, what we noticed is that with the evolution of the representation, our way of testing genuine representation has not matched up with that growth.” /cb