Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Monday, January 5, welcomed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s veto of non-essential items under the unprogrammed appropriations and the prohibition on political involvement in the distribution of cash aid in the newly signed Republic Act 12314, the 2026 national budget.
Lacson said the items that survived the veto—government support to foreign-assisted projects and the revised Armed Forces of the Philippines Modernization Program—are necessary for economic development and national security.
He recalled that during budget deliberations last December, he pushed to limit unprogrammed allocations to legitimate purposes such as foreign-assisted projects and AFP modernization.
“P150.905 billion is the exact amount that survived the veto, of which P97.3 billion is for Government Support to Foreign-Assisted Projects, P3.6 billion for the Program on Risk Management, and P50 billion for the revised AFP Modernization Program, while all other seven items under UA were vetoed,” Lacson said.
“We need the government support to Foreign-Assisted Projects and the Revised AFP Modernization Program as our commitments to our economic development and national security,” he added.
Lacson said he was fine with the veto of the P35.769 billion “Government of the Philippines counterpart of Foreign-Assisted Projects,” noting it “could be a duplication” of existing support to FAP.
He also welcomed the President’s directive to strictly enforce the ban on political involvement in the distribution of cash and other financial assistance, saying, “It will ensure that assistance reaches its intended beneficiaries fairly, transparently, and solely on the basis of need.”
On Monday, Marcos signed Republic Act 12314, or the 2026 General Appropriations Act (GAA), into law and vetoed P92.5 billion, or 38 percent, of the P243.4 billion in unprogrammed appropriations.
