Philippine business groups demand removal of unjustified budget insertions in proposed 2027 national budget

Thirty-five business and civil society groups have called on Philippine lawmakers to remove unjustified insertions from the proposed P7.2-trillion 2027 national budget. The groups issued a joint statement on Thursday, October 29, 2026, urging Senate President Sherwin T. Gatchalian, House Speaker Faustino G. Dy III, Senate Finance Committee Chair Joseph Victor G. Ejercito, and House Appropriations Committee Chair Mikaela Angela B. Suansing to act.

The appeal follows the House of Representatives' earlier approval on third reading of House Bill No. 10858, the proposed General Appropriations Act of 2027. Business groups say more than P180 billion was added to the Department of Public Works and Highways budget through the Budget Amendments and Review Subcommittee.

“We call on the leaders of both Houses of Congress to remove from the proposed P7.2-trillion 2027 national budget every congressional insertion that has no technical basis.”

Independent budget watchdogs report that these additions cover at least 6,000 projects, raising the DPWH project count in the National Expenditure Program to at least 16,000. Many appear as lump sums for multi-purpose buildings and access and bypass roads, without published project lists or named proponents.

The groups said the additional DPWH allocations were funded by cutting around P130 billion from foreign-assisted projects, P9.5 billion supposedly for calamity funds, P1.76 billion from the EDSA Busway budget, and P4.9 billion meant for health programs. They described raiding calamity funds in a disaster-exposed country as indefensible.

The People's Budget Coalition co-convenors Adolfo Jose Montesa and Kenneth Isaiah Abante testified before the Senate finance committee on Monday, October 26, stating that over P1 trillion of the 2027 budget allocations lacked proper scrutiny. Watchdogs also flagged items such as farm-to-market roads geolocated in waters off Brunei, Indonesia, Africa, and offshore Philippines.

The Makati Business Club, Management Association of the Philippines, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and other signatories called the reductions in infrastructure and social services deeply troubling. They urged Congress to scrap every insertion lacking a technical basis.