MANILA – Investments in education, health and agriculture are the highlights of the proposed PHP6.793-trillion national budget for 2026 ratified by the Senate on Monday, according to Senator Sherwin Gatchalian.
Delivering the ratification speech for the bicameral conference committee report on House Bill No. 4058, Gatchalian said the overall direction of the 2026 General Appropriations Bill is anchored on human development, with priority funding directed to sectors seen as critical to long-term national growth.
“We will see that the funds that we have invested in education, health, and agriculture are big because we believe that these three sectors are very important for the development of our country and for the development of our economy,” Gatchalian, chairperson of the Committee on Finance, said.
He said education remains the single largest investment in the 2026 budget, with total funding reaching PHP1.35 trillion, equivalent to 4.4 percent of gross domestic product.
Gatchalian said the "historic" education allocation would fund efforts to reduce classroom shortages, expand the School-Based Feeding Program to address malnutrition among learners, and ensure that students are provided with textbooks.
On health, he said the sector’s budget was increased to PHP447.6 billion, including a PHP129.78-billion allocation for the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., representing a 15-percent increase compared with the House-approved level.
He added that funding was also boosted for Zero Balance Billing in Department of Health hospitals and for specialty hospitals.
He highlighted the proposed PHP214.39-billion agriculture budget, which he said is the highest allocation for the sector in more than a decade and is intended to support farm incomes and strengthen food security.
Gatchalian said the bicameral conference committee incorporated safeguards to protect public funds, citing livestreamed bicameral deliberations, public access to budget documents, and the requirement for infrastructure projects to carry station numbers and geographic coordinates to allow on-the-ground verification.
The Senate approval cleared the 2026 national budget for transmittal to Malacañang for President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.'s signature. (PNA)