Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. signs the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for Fiscal Year 2026 at the Ceremonial Hall of Malacañang on Monday, January 5, 2026. The national budget, enacted as Republic Act No. 12314, amounts to Php6.793 trillion. Yummie Dingding, PPA pool

Article (news)

Katrina Domingo

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1767588498367viber_image_2026-01-05_12-38-27_cropped_processed_by_imagy.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. signs the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for Fiscal Year 2026 at the Ceremonial Hall of Malacañang on Monday, January 5, 2026. The national budget, enacted as Republic Act No. 12314, amounts to Php6.793 trillion. Yummie Dingding, PPA pool</span></span></span>MANILA<strong> (4th UPDATE) </strong><strong></strong>— President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on Monday said he vetoed P92.5-billion worth of projects under unprogrammed appropriations in the 2026 national budget.</div><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/1/5/marcos-jr-signs-p6-79-t-national-budget-for-2026-1008">Marcos Jr. signs P6.79-T national budget for 2026</a></div><p>&quot;We acknowledge the support of Congress in limiting the unprogrammed appropriations to essential needs. However, I pushed further and reduced it to the absolute bare minimum. This shall be at the lowest since 2019,&quot; Marcos said in his speech after signing the P6.79-trillion spending plan for 2026.</p><p>Weeks before the signing of the GAA, several lawmakers questioned why the UA supposedly ballooned to over P200 billion.</p><p>Under the unprogrammed allocations in the 2026 GAA, Marcos retained only the following items:</p><p>• Support to Foreign-Assisted Projects (P97.30 billion)</p><p>• Program on Risk Management (P3.6 billion)</p><p>• Revised AFP Modernization Program (P50 billion)</p><div><br/></div><p>Meantime, projects that were dislodged from the UA are as follows:</p><p>- Budgetary support to GOCCs (P6.89 billion)</p><p>- PH counterpart of foreign assisted projects (P35.76 billion)</p><p>- Prior years’ LGU shares (P14.62 million)</p><p>- Fiscal support arrearages for Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy (CARS) Program (P4.32 billion)</p><p>- Revitalizing the Automotive Industry for Competitiveness Enhancement (RACE) program (P250 million)</p><p>- Comprehensive and adequate insurance protection of strategically important government assets and interest (P2 billion)</p><p>- Payment of Personnel Service Requirement (P43.24 billion)</p><p>The fund for the service benefits of government workers was moved to an actual line item in the spending plans of their respective agencies, Budget Secretary Rolando Toledo told Palace reporters.</p><p>“Mandatory kasi iyan kailangan nating bayaran iyan kasi kundi baka magwala sila. Because those are already earned already as their benefits, so, that should be put in the proper place which is already programmed in the specific agency budget,” he said.</p><p>While projects under the UA are those deemed on “standby” as they may only be executed if “revenue collection exceed targets and when additional grants or foreign funds are generated,” these items in the budget have been criticized as another form of discretionary fund that is vulnerable to corruption.</p><p>“We’ll not allow the UA to be used and be mistreated as a backdoor for discretionary spending… It will only be released after careful validation. We will make releases charged from the UA transparent,&quot; Marcos said.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/9/19/what-are-unprogrammed-funds-gatchalian-says-they-are-pork-barrel-1225">What are &#x27;unprogrammed&#x27; funds? Gatchalian says they are &#x27;pork barrel&#x27;</a></div><p>&quot;The unprogrammed appropriations are not blank checks… Its utilization is provided with safeguards and is only available when clearly defined triggered and tests are met, and will be released only after careful validation... My administration will enforce these safeguards without exception to serve public interest and advance our national development goals,&quot; he added.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>CONDITIONAL IMPLEMENTATION</strong></div><p>The President also placed several items under &quot;conditional implementation.&quot;</p><p>Among these is the Department of National Defense-Office of Civil Defense’s (DND-OCD) quick response fund to underscore that the priority use of this sum should be “shall be given to the quick relief and recovery programs and projects for affected communities.”</p><p>“The construction of logistics hubs and the procurement of drones for disaster assessment, among other disaster risk reduction or mitigation, prevention, preparedness activities, reconstruction and other work or services, shall primarily be sourced from the DND-OCD’s regular budget or the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund,” the President’s veto message read.</p><p>Marcos also said that the 2026 budget &quot;aims to steer us towards achieving a single-digit poverty rate by 2028.&quot;</p><p>“The veto of these items is a measured exercise of Executive authority to rebuild public trust in the budget process, by ensuring that public funds are expended in clear service of national interests,” the President said in his veto message this year.</p><p>“I direct all concerned departments and agencies of the national government to exercise prudent fiscal management to ensure uninterrupted quality public service,” he said.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ogr0qtn93rs?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on Monday said he vetoed P92.5-billion worth of projects under unprogrammed appropriations in the 2026 national budget.</p>

President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on Monday said he vetoed P92.5-billion worth of projects under unprogrammed appropriations in the 2026 national budget.

Marcos vetoes nearly P92.5-B worth of unprogrammed appropriations for 2026

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Marcos vetoes nearly P92.5-B worth of unprogrammed appropriations for 2026

Katrina Domingo,

ABS-CBN News

Published Jan 05, 2026 10:39 AM PHT

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Updated Jan 05, 2026 05:34 PM PHT

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2026 Budget

National Budget

Ferdinand Marcos Jr

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