Philippines: House members want livestream of 2026 budget 'bicam' blocked

Manila: Two Philippine Senators — Erwin Tulfo and Panfilo "Ping" Lacson —revealed on Tuesday (December 9, 2025), that certain House Representatives members are resisting livestreaming the bicameral conference committee meeting on the proposed 2026 national budget.

The bicameral conference committee, aka "bicam" is a small group involving members of both the Senate the House, and a forum notorious for alleged multi-billion-peso dagdag-bawas, or "midnight insertions" within the 4,000-page document.

The Senate leadership maintained that these will be livestreamed.

If the bicam deliberations are livestreamed, it will be first for the Asian country. If not, the House could face the public's as well as the Senators' wrath.

On Tuesday, the Senate has approved on final reading the proposed ₱6.793-trillion national budget for 2026, in a 17-0-0 vote.

This paves the way for the bicam committee.

The bicam, in theory, is created to reconcile the House and Senate versions of the budget.

Recent revelations show that the so-called midnight insertions are made via the "bicam" within a voluminous General Appropriations Act (GAA).

Proponents of the insertions, also notoriously called "dagdag bawas" (translation: add-subtract) made in voluminous annual budget document become virtually untraceable.

It's not immediately clear who Tulfo and Lacson are referring to among the 313-member House of Representatives, or the Appropriations Committee (48 members, chaired by Rep Mika Suansing of Nueva Ecija 1st District) resisting the bicam livestream.

On Tuesday Suansing, stated in an X post: "As early as August, even before the budget deliberations, the House already made pronouncements about opening and livestreaming the bicam... Simulat sapul, ay matibay na ang paninindigan ng House of Representatives patutungkol sa pagla-livestream ng bicam (From the start, the House of Representatives has expressed a strong stand toward livestreaming the bicam)."

Tulfo's disclosure

In an interview with local media, Tulfo cited discussions between Senate President Vicente Sotto III and House members.

“There are those opposing it. Not here with us, but over there — in the House, they don’t want it. As Senator Sotto said, it seems they had some sort of discussion. Because they said, ‘Why was it meddled with?’ Something like that. ‘Why was this suddenly slashed, slashed, slashed?’” Tulfo said.

Tulfo advocates transparency: “We’re not hiding anything. Why don’t they want it? Why isn’t it needed? And number two, that’s everyone’s budget. That’s our money. It’s not the senators’ money, nor the congressmen’s. So if you ask me, why not? Why do we have to hide? We need to show it live, up to the last minute, the last centavo, so people can see it.”

He added, “These people elected us. So we owe it to them. They want it live, so why don’t we give them what they want?”

President wants livestreamed bicam

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. secured Congress's agreement in October to livestream the bicam amid corruption scandals—the first such public airing in history. [gulfnews.com]

Senate Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson noted House inaction: “So we were told that there’s some resistance. We already passed a concurrent resolution — but there’s no counterpart. We passed it here, right? So we will fight for it, we will really fight for it.” He explained, “A concurrent resolution is needed. Both houses need to pass it for it to be binding.”

Sotto denied opposition talks: “No, there wasn’t. Maybe there were just some comments passed around. Earlier, Speaker Bodjie was with us, and he didn’t say anything to me. And we will not agree to that because that was our agreement with the President.”