The 2027 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) passed by the House of Representatives (HOR) makes an already inadequate proposed 2027 national budget even worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Php7.2-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2027 the President submitted to Congress was already deeply flawed to begin with. At an only 6% increase from this year’s budget and an even smaller 4.2% if interest rates are excluded, the proposed 2027 budget does not even keep up with inflation that may reach 5-6% or more for the whole of 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trivial budget increase for 2027 means that it will not do anything to stimulate the economy just when stagflationary pressures are already rapidly mounting. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth falling to 2.6% in Q1-Q2 2026 is less than half the 5.4% in the same period in last year, inflation rising to 5.4% in Jan-Sept 2026 is three times the 1.7% in the same period last year, and unemployment of 5.2% in Jan-Aug 2026 is higher than the 4.1% in the same period last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The HOR, however, has further distorted the proposed budget with its grossly election-driven amendments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The HOR GAB increased funds for discretionary assistance programs, or soft pork barrel: Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS \u2013 Php24.8 billion more), Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients (MAIFIP – Php24 billion), Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged\/ Displaced Workers (TUPAD – Php4.6 billion) and Tulong Dunong (Php1.8 billion). It inserted Php10 billion for the chief executive\u2019s Presidential Assistance to Farmers and Fisherfolk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hard pork barrel also increased with Php42.7 billion more for multipurpose buildings and Php29.3 billion more for local access roads under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Convergence and Special Support Program which got a Php74.1 billion boost in the HOR GAB. An additional Php10.2 billion went to the DPWH National Roads Program. Meanwhile, the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) was cut by Php4.5 billion, and the Basic Education Facilities Fund by Php3.1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON said that ayuda for distressed households is urgently needed but should not be a discretionary mechanism so vulnerable to political intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are some critical changes for the 2027 budget that Congress passes to be more relevant, within the Php7.2 trillion limit set when the President submitted the NEP. These include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congress can also send a signal that it disagrees with the executive’s narrow-minded fiscal consolidation. It can do this with proposals to address the government\u2019s self-imposed fiscal constraints. This includes measures for more progressive taxation such as a billionaire wealth tax and reversing corporate income tax cuts, better revenue collection especially against tax avoidance and evasion by large corporations, and rationalizing unnecessary tax incentives. Essential programs cannot be made to compete for inadequate resources.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The HOR has further distorted the proposed budget with its grossly election-driven amendments.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2048,940,14],"tags":[4424,4516,4514,4515,2972,4489,536,86],"class_list":["post-19281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banner","category-infrastructure-transportation","category-news","tag-2027-national-budget","tag-2028-elections","tag-hor-gab","tag-hor-general-appropriations-bill","tag-marcos-jr-administration","tag-political-patronage","tag-pork","tag-pork-barrel","wpautop"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-21 07:08:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19283,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19281\/revisions\/19283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}