Senate finance panel swiftly approves 7.7B budget for chamber

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 was quickly approved at the Senate finance committee level on Thursday.

Senate Secretary Atty. Renato Bantug presented the budget for the chamber.

Bantug noted that the Senate is accepting the amount that the Department of Budget and Management allocated in the National Expenditures Program (NEP).

He also added that, if need be, the Senate will be willing to shave off P2 billion from the DBM’s proposed allocation.

“Our budget permutations will include, at the maximum, at a level provided for in the NEP, and as low as P2 billion less than the NEP,” Bantug told the panel.

Under the NEP, the Senate’s funding for 2027 amounts to P7.7 billion, which is 10 percent less than its P8.6 billion allocation in 2026.

READ: Senate panel swiftly approves OVP’s proposed 2027 budget

Senate finance committee chairperson JV Ejercito highlighted the reduced funding for the upper chamber.

“We are one of the very few agencies that has a lower budget for 2027… Because of the very limited fiscal space, we are practicing austerity,” Ejercito explained.

The panel likewise approved the proposed budgets of the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) and the Commission on Appointments (CA).

Under the NEP, the SET was given a P328.9 million budget for 2027.

SET Secretary Luis Jose Geronimo requested from the committee an extra P93.5 million to “undertake the most urgent repairs in [their] premises,” information technology upgrades, training of employees, and health insurance for personnel.

For the CA, its secretary Myra Villarica requested a P595 million increase on top of the body’s P1.13 billion allocation under the NEP. /apl