Gatchalian confident of President Marcos’ approval of 2026 budget billSenate finance committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian speaks at the telecasted bicameral conference committee session on the 2026 national budget on Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. MANILA, Philippines — The 2026 General Appropriations Bill would pass the scrutiny of President Marcos, Senate finance committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian said yesterday as he expressed confidence on the bicameral conference committee-approved GAB. In a dzBB interview, Gatchalian said the Senate and House of Representatives had a “meeting of minds” in reconciling their differing versions of the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget. “I am confident the budget would be passed, because we had a parallel review with the executive branch to review the budget even before it is transmitted to them,” Gatchalian said. “We had ensured that past infrastructure anomalies would no longer happen again in this budget, so that taxpayers’ money would no longer be wasted,” Gatchalian said.

Source: Philippine Star December 26, 2025 16:34 UTC