‘Nothing wrong if Marcos joins budget bicam deliberations’
Credit to Author: Neil Jayson Servallos| Date: Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0800
MANILA, Philippines — Senator-elect Panfilo Lacson yesterday welcomed President Marcos’ plan to observe the bicameral deliberations on the 2026 national budget, seeing it as a good step toward transparency.
“As long as the President will not actively participate in the bicameral conference deliberations and just sit as an observer, lest he be misunderstood as encroaching on the time-honored tradition of the legislature’s exercise of the ‘power of the purse,’ I support such gesture as it will send a clear and very strong signal to the members of Congress not to make a mockery of our role in the budget process and that we should not treat the national budget as individual prerogatives, not aligned with the policy direction of the administration toward achieving the country’s development goals in 2026 and beyond,” Lacson said.
The returning senator has long criticized the secrecy surrounding bicam proceedings, describing it as a “third and most powerful chamber.”
He also renewed his call to open bicam sessions to public and media scrutiny.
“The public and the media can be at the gallery. They will not participate directly in the deliberations but at least they will know what is going on. What is happening now in the bicam is that those concerned just whisper to each other, and the public is kept in the dark,” he said, citing his Senate Bill 24 filed in the 18th Congress to promote public participation in the budget process.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros, on the other hand, cautioned Marcos against showing up in bicameral budget deliberations, saying he might be at odds with the Constitution.
The power of the purse is wielded by Congress and Congress alone, not the executive, not any member of the executive, not even the chief executive,” she said.
“If that will be pushed through, there might be a problem. There might be cases filed,” Hontiveros stressed.