Bacolod City Lone District Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez has assured the public of continued transparency in the deliberations for the P6.793-trillion proposed national budget for 2026 after the House of Representatives requested for extension of the plenary session until Oct. 13.
“We’re finishing the budget deliberations. We’re now entering the period of amendments. Supposedly, we will end Oct. 10, we asked for an extension before it will be transmitted to the Senate. We asked for another three days up to Oct. 13. By Oct. 14, we will transmit the budget to the Senate,” Benitez said in an interview over the weekend.
The lawmaker pointed out the change in this year’s budget deliberations, noting that there are no more small committees that will make changes after the plenary approval.
“All deliberations are publicly broadcasted. We can see there are no small committees, it’s the entire plenary (deliberating on it) now. After the plenary’s approval of the budget, there are no more changes. Unlike before, after the plenary approves it, there are small committees that still amend the appropriations. Now, it will not happen,” he added.
Benitez said the formal request for the Senate’s consent to extend the plenary session shows that the House of Representatives is working for greater transparency for the national budget to be free from insertions and irregularities amid the ongoing investigation on the anomalous flood control projects.
“Now, all eyes are on it. As you can see, the deliberations were not rushed everyone who wanted to raise questions were accommodated. The fact that there’s a delay, we asked for additional time before we submit it to the Senate, that’s a result already that we are trying to be much more transparent in our budget process,” the Bacolod lawmaker said. ||
