Malacañang on Monday declared the ₱6.793 trillion 2026 national budget free of pork barrel allocations, citing stricter safeguards and the exclusion of lawmakers from budget execution.
Executive Secretary Ralph Recto dismissed claims of hidden pork, stressing legislators have no role once the budget is implemented.
“Sa tingin namin, pork barrel-free dahil hindi naman puwedeng makialam ang legislator pagdating ng executing the budget at purely executive function na iyan pagdating ng execution of the budget,” he said.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. underscored fiscal discipline by cutting unprogrammed appropriations (UA) to ₱150.9 billion, the lowest since 2019, and vetoing nearly ₱92.5 billion in items deemed vulnerable to misuse.
“Let me be clear: the unprogrammed appropriations are not blank checks. We will not allow the unprogrammed appropriations to be misused or treated as a backdoor for discretionary spending,” Marcos said.
He added, “The UA utilization is provided with safeguards and is only available when clearly defined triggers and tests are met and will be released only after careful validation… We will make releases charged from the UA transparent, providing the necessary details on the funding source and the corresponding purpose.”
Recto said vetoed items included support for government corporations, LGU shares, personnel services, insurance of assets, and industry incentive programs. Allocations for public health emergency benefits and Marawi-related compensation were also scrapped.
Only three UA purposes survived: foreign-assisted projects, the Revised AFP Modernization Program, and the Risk Management Program. Marcos also ordered conditional implementation of sensitive provisions such as disaster funds, retirement benefits, and foreign service posts, subject to tighter controls.