FY 2026 NEP: Nurturing future-ready generations

Assalamu alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. Last Aug. 13, 2025, on behalf of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos Jr. (PBBM) and as Secretary of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), I had the honor and privilege of officially submitting to Congress the P6.793 trillion Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP) for their review, deliberation, and approval.

- DBM SECRETARY AMENAH F. PANGANDAMAN

We, in the Executive Branch, submitted the President's proposed budget, which is 7.4 percent higher than this year's P6.326 trillion national budget and equivalent to 22 percent of our Gross Domestic Product, just two weeks after the President's fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 28, 2025.

While this may be so, we have been diligently and meticulously crafting the proposed budget. I highly appreciate PBBM for being very hands-on during the process, sitting down with each agency several times, carefully considering their concerns and needs, and planning how we can make our Agenda for Prosperity truly felt by the Filipino people. As he pronounced in his SONA, "We are not building only for today; we are building also for tomorrow."

We, at the DBM, received a total of P10.101 trillion worth of budget proposals. To ensure that we can strengthen the economy, reduce our deficit, and realize the nation's full potential given our limited fiscal space, we carefully evaluated all submissions based on their alignment with the priorities of the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2023-2028, shovel-readiness of new and ensuring completion of ongoing projects with the highest impact, and the absorptive capacity of agencies or ability to utilize their budget. We also encouraged agencies to adopt efficiency measures and reduce nonessential items.

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