Congress holds power to increase, cut proposed 2027 budget, Malacañang says

Malacañang on Friday, Oct. 30, reiterated that Congress has the authority to increase, reduce, or realign allocations in the proposed PHP7.2-trillion national budget for 2027, citing lawmakers' constitutional "power of the purse."

Palace Press Officer Claire Castro made the remark after several business and civil society groups urged lawmakers to remove budget insertions that they said lacked sufficient technical justification.

Castro noted that while the executive branch formulates and submits the National Expenditure Program (NEP), Congress has the final say in deliberating, amending, and approving the national budget.

She said the Marcos administration supports efforts to ensure transparency and accountability in public spending, while expressing hope that funding for priority government programs and projects would be retained to avoid implementation delays.

On Thursday, Oct. 29, 35 business and civil society organizations, including the Makati Business Club, the Management Association of the Philippines, and the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines, called on Congress to remove what they described as unjustified additions to the proposed spending measure.

The groups raised concerns over amendments to the House-approved General Appropriations Bill that increased the budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways by more than PHP180 billion.

According to the groups, the additional allocations were reportedly sourced from cuts to foreign-assisted projects, calamity funds, the EDSA Busway program, and health-related initiatives.