Senate Approves ₱6.8-Trillion 2027 National Budget on Third Reading

MANILA — The Senate on Tuesday approved on third and final reading the ₱6.8-trillion national budget for 2027, with all 21 senators present voting in favor after three weeks of plenary deliberations.

The upper chamber’s version of the General Appropriations Bill raises the education budget to ₱1.06 trillion — 4.2 percent of projected GDP — and adds ₱28 billion for disaster preparedness and climate adaptation, citing forecasts of a stronger La Niña through early 2027.

Health allocations rose by 11 percent to ₱412 billion, including funding for the deployment of additional barangay health workers and the expansion of PhilHealth’s outpatient benefit packages.

This budget invests where it counts: classrooms, clinics, and communities that must be ready before the storms arrive, not after.

A bicameral conference committee will meet next week to reconcile the Senate and House versions. Congressional leaders said they aim to transmit the enrolled bill to Malacañang before the end of September.

Budget watchdogs welcomed the increased social spending but urged both chambers to publish itemized amendments, saying transparency in the bicameral stage remains “the weakest link” of the budget process.