The country’s poorest sector criticized the proposed 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government, saying it is pro-rich and anti-poor.
As the House of Representatives (HOR) starts its deliberations on next year’s budget, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said Marcos Jr. submitted a financial plan that is worth billions for the rich and crumbs for the poor.
KMP said the proposed Php6.79-trillion budget will worsen rural poverty, hunger, and joblessness while prioritizing foreign and business interests.
“This is not a budget for the people. This is for big businesses, foreign interests, and political cronies,” KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos said, adding farmers, workers and ordinary citizens will again get less from the NEP.
KMP said the proposed budget’s 7.4% increase from last year is not only below the 2025 growth rate but actually presents weaker government spending.
The group said that at a time when poverty and hunger are worsening among ordinary Filipinos, the Marcos Jr. government actually plans to keep essential social services “severely underfunded.”
The agriculture sector, including fisherfolk, will get only 3.8% of the total budget despite the supposed tripling of the Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Fund to Php30 billion, the farmers said.
There will be too little spending for irrigation, extension services, and much-needed rural infrastructure needed to boost productivity, lower food prices, and reduce import dependence, they added.
The average daily wage for Filipino farm workers was PHP 331.10 in 2019 while the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization reported that small-scale fisherfolk only earn about PHP 107,000 annually.
Meanwhile, economists estimate that a household must earn close to half a million pesos annually to not be considered poor.
The farmers also criticized insufficient spending for social services such as health which will get a “measly five percent increase, with medical aid for indigents slashed by over 40 percent.”
KMP also revealed that next year’s budget for social welfare will barely grow while programs for emergency jobs and senior pensions will be cut.
“Is there genuine development when farmers are hungry and the people are sick because there is hardly support from government?” Ramos asked.
Misspent national budget
Meanwhile, ongoing HOR deliberations are zeroing in on the public works budget with several proposals saying flood control projects must be cut in favor of education and classroom construction.
Budget secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the executive branch may consider transferring the proposed flood control budget to classroom construction following revelations of ghost and substandard projects.
She however said that it is all up to Congress to decide on the final version of next year’s budget.
Pres. Marcos himself acknowledged that flood control funds have become sources of corruption by favored contractors and corrupt politicians.
“Shame on you,” Marcos in his State of the Nation Address last month blurted.
But KMP said that the Marcos government is not sincere in looking after the welfare of poor Filipinos because of many other pro-rich items in his proposed 2026 budget.
These items include Php950 billion for debt interest payments that will enjoy an increase bigger than the combined hikes for health, housing, and social protection.
KMP also slammed the proposed Php430.9 billion budget for defense – with an increase of 14% from 2025 – it said reflects Marcos Jr.’s agreement to pressure from the US government under the 2023 Bilateral Defense Guidelines to buy “inter-operable” weapons.
“[He] (Marcos) is spending billions upon billions for debt servicing and for war preparations while the agriculture sector and the entire economy is hard up,” Ramos stressed.
KMP said the Marcos Jr. government must re-channel and re-orient the budget toward massive agricultural support services and direct subsidies and compensation to farmers, rural infrastructure, and substantial increases in health, education, housing, and social protection.
The group also urged the scrapping of bloated military allocations and the imposition of wealth taxes on billionaires and large corporations. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
