LIVE - Senate plenary debates on proposed 2026 national budget (Nov. 18, 2025) | GMA Integrated News

18 this refers to the 2026 year appropriations bill the parliamentary status of the bill is that we are in the period of interpellation on the general hearing n the consideration of house bill 4058 under committee report number 18 is in order i move to recognize sponsored the chairs of the committee and finance

the distinguish center from Valenzuela center wi galan and to interpellate is center panfil Lakson Senator Sherwin Galan chairman of committee of finance is recognized and to interpellate is the president protemp Senator Ping Lon Thank you, Mr. President

1 minute suspension Mr. session suspended

Yes, thank you, Mr. President. First off, uh let me state for the record that I would like to associate myself with the common sentiment of a good number of our colleagues, no in commending yours honor for almost single-handedly uh spear heading or leading the way, what if you want, uh, towards what could be the most transparent

and corruption free national budget. Thank you, Mr. President for the uh kind words and uh means to means a lot to the committee and also to the staff and to the members. uh those words coming from Senator Lakson who has been really uh monitoring, supervising, scrutinizing the budget since time and memorial Mr.

President and uh when I was a new Senator, I would listen to him intently uh interpellating uh the different uh sponsors of the budget, Mr. President and I picked up so many uh concepts on how to reform the budget especially making it uh transparent and open to the public Mr. President, thank you very much.