THE proposed P11.9-billion annual budget for 2026 has cleared its initial hurdle after the Provincial Board’s budget and finance committee finished its review on Thursday, Nov. 27, 2025.
However, the legislators are now racing against a strict year-end deadline due to the executive department’s late submission of the proposal, according to chairman of the Budget and Appropriations Committee Ex-officio Board Member Celestino Martinez III.
The PB has until December 31 to pass the budget.
“I can do little to move faster. The submission of the budget proposal was late and the rules of procedure of the SP do not provide any shortcuts,” Martinez said in a message on Friday, Nov. 28.
He said the committee members worked early and compressed hearings, covering six days, which was on Nov. 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, to meet all departments.
Despite the constraints, Martinez affirmed a consensus exists among members to pass a new budget for 2026.
Procedural timeline
Martinez said the committee is drafting its report and plans to meet early next week to discuss observations, possibly on Dec. 2. The report will be presented to the PB only after committee approval.
Martinez said budget deliberations usually take at least two weeks to complete the entire process.
The proposal must still undergo a second reading once the committee report reaches the plenary.
Gov. Pamela Baricuatro’s administration submitted the proposed budget on Nov. 7, missing the Local Government Code’s mandated Oct. 16 deadline.
This delay prompted initial concerns that the deliberation period would be severely compressed.
Under the Local Government Code (RA 7160), if the appropriation ordinance is not passed by Dec. 31, the previous year’s budget is automatically reenacted for the first 90 days of the fiscal year, allowing only essential expenditures until a new budget is approved. / CDF