MANILA, Philippines — The national budget for 2026 will be an “education budget,” according to the new chief of the Senate finance panel.
“We will prioritize education in the 2026
The national budget for 2026 will be an “education budget,” according to the new chief of the Senate finance panel.
“We will prioritize education in the 2026 budget. We also heard from our President that a huge portion [of the budget] will be dedicated to education,” Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said at the Kapihan sa Senado forum on Monday, referring to President Marcos’ State of the Nation Address on July 28.
Gatchalian, the chair of the Senate committee on finance in the 20th Congress, said his panel “will push for the education budget to exceed 4 percent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”
“Right now it’s around 3.8 to 3.9 percent. In the past, [the allotment for education] reached 4 percent, but it went down. For 2026, we will [aim] to bring it back to 4 percent of GDP,” he said.
Malacañang is proposing a budget next year of P6.793 trillion.
Gatchalian said his committee had begun coordinating with the chamber’s Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office to narrow down the priorities for the proposed budget, adding that a “proposed calendar” had been drawn for its passage.
