BICAM MEETINGS ON 2026 NATIONAL BUDGET WILL BE LIVESTREAMED – PBBM

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. announced on Wednesday that the Bicameral Conference Committee meeting for the 2026 national budget will be livestreamed to promote transparency.

President Marcos said he had an agreement with Senate President Vicente Sotto III and House Speaker Faustino Dy III to open the bicameral meetings for the 2026 General Appropriations Act to the public.

The President said this initiative would provide the Filipino public a clearer understanding of the budget process and the opportunity to monitor any questionable insertions or additions in the proposed budget.

“To further encourage transparency, I intend to livestream the bicam. So, that’s what I told them already,” President Marcos said in an interview following the oathtaking of the newly-elected officers of media groups covering Malacañang.

“I have the agreement of the Senate President and the Speaker na ganoon ang gagawin natin. 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 added.

The Chief Executive also said that there will be no “small committee” involved in the budget deliberations.

“There is no more small committee. Iyong dating ginagawa that they have a bicam, then they suspend, and then there’s a small committee. Wala ng small committee,” said the President.

President Marcos noted that the version of the 2026 national budget passed by the House of Representatives remains consistent with the administration’s socio-economic development plan.

“From the last time that I saw the last version of the budget, wala naman akong nakita na humihiwalay doon sa plano ng national government kaya hindi siguro kailangan mag-veto,” the President said, adding that the budget bill still has to pass through the Senate and the Bicameral Conference.