16/08/2026
PRESS STATEMENT
ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio
Gabriela Women's Party Rep. Sarah Elago
Kabataan Rep. Renee Louise Co
13 August 2026
MAKABAYAN BLOC: NEP 2027 IS A DECLARATION OF MARCOS ADMIN'S ANTI-PEOPLE PRIORITIES—SOCIAL SERVICES GUTTED WHILE PORK, FLOOD CONTROL, AND MILITARIZATION SURGE
The Makabayan Bloc, today lambasted the proposed 2027 National Expenditure Program (NEP) as a glaring policy statement of the Marcos administration's skewed, anti-people priorities. The 2027 national budget exposes an administration hell-bent on channeling the people's hard-earned taxes towards bloated infrastructure projects, entrenched corruption, and escalating militarization, at the direct expense of our people's most basic social needs.
The 2027 NEP is fundamentally characterized by a massive allocation of wealth away from social services and toward the administration's "Build Better More" program. The numbers speak for themselves: while the total budget for Social Services was reduced by 5.5%, infrastructure agencies, primarily the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), are set to gorge on a staggering ₱275.76 billion in new funding. The DOTr budget more than doubles, surging by 118.97%, while the DPWH receives an additional ₱113.02 billion. These still do not include the Congressional insertions and realignments that expand the basis of corruption.
This oversized allocation for infrastructure is a dangerous signal of the return of flood control scams and concrete-padding cronies. History and recent experience have repeatedly shown that infrastructure funds are the lifeblood of bureaucratic corruption and political patronage. The Marcos administration is clearly laying the groundwork to flood DPWH and DOTr with funds that are ripe for systematic plunder, dressed up as economic development, while millions of Filipinos remain impoverished and neglected. The bloated proposed 2027 budget will serve to fund the election war chest of those in power, as systemic corruption remains unchanged.
For 2027, the Marcos administration will be allocating ₱107.4 billion for flood control projects. Of the total, ₱83.85 is for DPWH’s Flood Management Program, ₱19.6 billion for foreign-assisted flood control projects, and ₱3.4 billion for MMDA’s Flood Control Program.
The cost of this infrastructure surge is the brutal gutting of the very agencies mandated to serve the people. The proposed budget slashes funding across all critical social sectors:
Education: The Department of Education (DepEd) suffers the largest total cut of ₱44.57 billion, with Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) cut by 33.7 billion and Capital Outlay (CO) cut by ₱66.6 billion. From ₱85.4 billion, the budget for Basic Education Facilities is reduced to ₱30.6 billion for 2027. This is driven by a crippling 64.22% budget cut, effectively halting the construction of much-needed classrooms. This will leave our students in overcrowded and dilapidated learning environments. State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) also face a ₱3.34 billion reduction, further commercializing higher education and depriving the youth of accessible, quality education.
Health: In the President Marcos’s Budget Message, it is stated that Filipino’s access to quality healthcare remains to be one of the highest priorities of his administration. However, contrary to this claim, his administration proposed severe budget cuts on public hospitals.
All the 86 DOH-retained public hospitals have no CO budget under the proposed national budget. Moreover, of the 14 DOH-retained hospitals in Metro Manila, 11 incurred MOOE budget cuts. Quirino Memorial Medical Center will incur the most MOOE budget cut amounting to ₱511.25 million (-31%), followed by National Center for Mental Health with ₱311.49 million budget cut (-20%) and RITM with ₱168.17 million budget cut (-28%). Meanwhile, four Metro Manila hospitals, namely Rizal Medical Center, East Avenue Medical Center, Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center and Tondo Medical Center will incur PS budget cuts.
Meanwhile, 17 DOH-retained Regional hospitals incurred MOOE budget cuts (ranging from ₱2.5 million to ₱470 million budget cut) while five incurred PS budget cuts (ranging from ₱15.16 million to ₱70.87 million budget cut). Even the budget of the Philippine General hospital was reduced from ₱8.1 billion to ₱7.3 billion under the budget proposal of Malacañang.
The national government subsidies to the four GOCC hospitals, namely Lung Center of the Philippines, National Kidney &Transplant Institute, Philippine Children's Medical Center and Philippine Heart Center, was drastically reduced by 29%-57%. Furthermore, the Marcos administration provided zero budget to support the implementation of Zero Balance Billing in LGU hospitals.
Agriculture and Agrarian Reform: The proposed 2027 agriculture budget falls short of strengthening food security and advancing food self-sufficiency, while failing to address the longstanding lack of land and adequate support for Filipino farmers and fisherfolk. The Department of Agriculture (DA) budget drops by ₱14.44 billion, from ₱185 billion in the 2025 GAA to ₱171.31 billion under the 2027 NEP. The National Food Authority (NFA) buffer stocking budget also declines from ₱11.29 billion in the 2026 GAA to ₱11.17 billion in the 2027 NEP.
New projects are being introduced, including ₱1.42 billion for the Pang-Agraryong Tulay para sa Bagong Bayanihan ng mga Magsasaka (PBBM) Bridges Project under the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) and ₱1 billion for Farm-to-Market Bridges Development under the DA.
More concerning, the proposed budget still provides no direct production subsidies and adequate compensation for farmers and fisherfolk affected by disasters, calamities, and national emergencies.
With farmers and fisherfolk facing rising production costs, declining incomes, and recurring disasters, the government must realign its priorities toward measures that increase local food production and protect agricultural livelihoods. The 2027 budget should prioritize land distribution, production support and assistance, and other essential services needed to build a more self-sufficient and resilient agricultural sector.
Ayuda: Meanwhile, soft pork in the form of ayuda programs, such as AICS, TUPAD and MAIP, lodged under DSWD, DOLE and DOH, respectively, reverted to the same levels as proposed by the Executive in the previous year. Historically, these ayuda programs are drastically increased by the congressmen and senators during budget deliberations. Instead of providing free, accessible and quality health and other social services, Filipinos are forced to beg for aid before different offices of politicians and government agencies.
Fascism: Simultaneously, the administration is ramping up its militarization and surveillance apparatus. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP, including General Headquarters and Revised AFP Modernization Program) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) receive a combined increase of ₱46.26 billion—mainly for personnel services due to increase in military/uniformed personnel’s subsistence allowance, and increases in MOOE. The operations budget of the AFP and the PNP was increased by ₱16.79 billion (19.07% increase) and ₱2.35 billion (10.09% increase), respectively. Meanwhile, the lump-sum funds appropriated for the Revised AFP Modernization Program was increased from ₱40 billion to ₱50 billion. Moreover, the Marcos administration further increased the Generals’ Pork (Barangay Development Program of the NTF-ELCAC) from ₱8.08 billion to ₱9.74 billion. This reflects a state that prioritizes funding for red-tagging, repression, surveillance, and counter-insurgency over the welfare of its citizens.
Office of the President: About half (44.9%) of the total budget of the Office of the President are confidential and intelligence funds. While the total budget of the OP seems to incur drastic reduction, this is mainly attributed to absence of the huge ₱17.55-billion fund for the Philippine hosting of ASEAN Summits and Meetings which was appropriated for in 2026.
Local Pork: On the other hand, the Marcos administration drastically increased the funds for its LGU pork. From its NEP 2026 proposal of P16.08 billion, the bicameral conference committee drastically increased the budget for Local Government Support Fund to ₱57.87 billion. For next fiscal year, it will be further increased to ₱58.53 billion. Most of it (₱37.49 billion) will be lodged under Financial Assistance to Local Government Units, which will be “equitably distributed” by the Marcos administration to LGUs. This LGU pork will be used upon the discretion of local chief executives for ayuda, infrastructure projects and purchase of vehicles. Again, this is part of the electoral war chest of the different factions of the ruling elite in preparation for 2028.
Debt servicing: The national budget prioritizes debt servicing over national development. Debt servicing on interest payments alone for 2027 is at ₱1.114 trillion, and is bigger than the proposed budget of the Department of Education for 2027 which is at ₱976 billion. Total debt servicing for 2027 will reach a staggering ₱2.704 trillion, up from last year’s ₱2.045 trillion. This already eats up 37.5% of the proposed ₱7.2 trillion budget. The proposed ₱7.2 trillion national budget will leave us deeper in debt as the Marcos regime projects revenue collection to be only at ₱5.206 trillion, resulting in a shortfall of almost ₱2 trillion which will be again funded by government loans.
The 2027 NEP is not a budget for the Filipino people. It is an administration's policy statement that prioritizes foreign-funded infrastructure, political patronage, and state repression over national development, economic self-reliance and the fundamental right to education, health, decent work, and food security.
We, in the Makabayan Bloc, will vigorously oppose this anti-people budget in Congress. We call on the Filipino people to vigorously reject a national budget that starves the poor to feed the corrupt and the powerful. The Filipino people deserve a pro-people budget that substantially funds national development, land reform, national industrialization, quality and accessible social services and support for the working people. # # #
