President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that the bicameral conference committee meetings for the 2026 national budget will be livestreamed to ensure transparency.
Marcos Jr. said he and Senate President Vicente Sotto III, along with House Speaker Faustino Dy III, agreed to make the sessions public so Filipinos can monitor possible “questionable insertions or additions” in the General Appropriations Act.
“We will livestream the entire process so that if there are questionable, shall we say, insertions or additions or all that, it will also be clear who moved – who made those changes or who proposed those changes so that people will know,” the President said after administering the oath of new Malacañang media officers.
He also clarified that there will no longer be a “small committee” handling budget amendments, a practice from previous years.
Marcos Jr. added that the House-approved version of the 2026 budget aligns with the administration’s socio-economic agenda, making a presidential veto unlikely once the bill clears the Senate and the bicameral panel.IMT
