No lawmaker amendments in House sub-panel budget deliberations - Suansing

Metro Manila, Philippines - Gone are the days when lawmakers can propose budget items unseen from the public eye and beyond what was stated in the national expenditure program, as the House of Representatives made good on its promise to ensure transparency in the appropriations process.

Nueva Ecija 1st District Rep. Mika Suansing convened the first meeting on Monday, Sept. 22, of the Budget Amendments Review Sub-committee (BARSc) and at the same time reiterated the new policy to do away with closed-door budget amendments.

The appropriations committee chairperson said only institutional amendments or budget requests of agencies are acceptable.

“During the budget deliberations, some of the congressmen had particular manifestations saying, ‘We hope to increase the budget of this agency,’ etcetera or ‘I hope we can increase this particular program,’” Suansing said in an ambush interview.

“We advised all the congressmen that if there are manifestations like that, they can coordinate with individual agencies so that those can be incorporated to the agency request,” she added.

Panel members will reallocate the P255 billion taken out from the revised budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

She encouraged colleagues to prioritize education, health, agriculture, and other areas of human capital development.

“This is unprecedented. It has never happened in the history of Congress that we had to reallocate such a big amount,” said Suansing. “What we really want to do for the budget of 2026 is to make it focused and centered on human capital development.”

The mother committee will go through the BARSc output before the plenary deliberations on the proposed P6.7-trillion 2026 budget on Tuesday.

As part of budgetary reforms in light of the multibillion-peso corruption in public works funds, the House of Representatives pledged to publicize all deliberations and enjoined civil society organizations to oversee the process.