Government budget

Listen on bbc.com, the BBC app or wherever you get your podcasts.

So, Paris, Phil, it was Budget Day at Westminster and we very generously gave ourselves an extra 24 hours to work out what we thought of it.

Yeah, I'm here at Westminster where the UK government hopes that this was a budget that was small but perfectly formed and didn't leave any space for embarrassing U-turns.

And here in Edinburgh, of course, we did Control F Scotland to try to work out what it means for Scotland and indeed for Jenny Gilruth's upcoming Scottish government budget.

room shot, yeah.

It's so interesting.

I mean, I'm sure there is a reason why we make the Chancellor do this, but there are like these little sort of conventions on Budget Day, aren't they? Which is possibly a desperate attempt to make it more fun, but it's actually also quite dry quite a lot of the time.

The cliches of Budget Day... you know, the rabbit out the hat.

Senators cite civic groups' budget review role.

Senate President Sherwin-Gate Chalian commended civil society groups for using technology, artificial intelligence, and coding to speed up their review of the national budget, announcing that the Senate has included a link to an independent study on its official Senate budget transparency portal.

The landmark initiative aims to provide the public with greater access to external analyses of the proposed P7.2 trillion national budget for 2027.

During the Committee on Finance hearing on Monday, October 26, Gate Chalian cited a specific analysis prepared by the civil society organization, CSO, BetterGov.ph, which he described as detailed, granular, and easy to analyze.

Gateshalian noted that BetterGov.ph managed to release its comprehensive analysis just one day after the General Appropriations Bill, GAB, was approved on second reading.

Meanwhile, economic services follow at P1.833 trillion to drive infrastructure and agricultural productivity.

Given the unprecedented size of the budget and recent strict Supreme Court rulings on spending limits, both senators and watchdogs have underscored the necessity for airtight, itemized oversight.

Transparency Portal First launched on September 1, 2025, to track the 2026 national budget, the Senate Budget Transparency Portal was designed to spearhead a golden age of transparency in local governance.

Be right back.

Welcome back to the Are We Okay Podcast, the Budget 2027 edition.

I am Dr. Botak.

And I am

DBM vows to comply with court ruling.

The Department of Budget and Management, DBM, on Sunday said it will comply with the Supreme Court's directives on the government's 2026 Unprogrammed Appropriations, UA, as it remains committed to implementing the 2026 General Appropriations Act, GAA, in accordance with the Constitution and applicable laws.

The DBM will observe the applicable Supreme Court directives concerning these provisions, without prejudice to the government's right to seek reconsideration through appropriate judicial processes, the DBM said.

Unaffected provisions remain implementable, subject to their respective legal bases, funding conditions, and established budgetary procedures, it said.

The DBM said it would observe the applicable directives while coordinating with the Office of the Solicitor General, OSG, and other concerned government offices to determine the appropriate next steps.

Budget Secretary Kim Robert de Leon said releases charged against the 2026 UA as of October 22 were limited to foreign-assisted projects, which are subject to a separate funding condition that was not invalidated by the court.

The UA mechanism has been subject to scrutiny because funds placed under a UA are not automatically available for spending and depend on the fulfillment of conditions set under the General Appropriations Act.

UAs in the 2026 General Appropriations Act, GAA, have been reduced to P150.9 billion.

I'm amazed it hasn't happened here yet, because people are just as angry in this country at the way they're being treated by a state that ignores their interests, and John Healey is saying he's going to do that.

His priorities, according to him in the Budget... are rebuilding financial confidence.

Entrepreneurs, he doesn't understand what an entrepreneur is because he's never obviously met one.

Entrepreneurs do not exist in large companies.

Under the mid-year budget adjustments, this money was shifted directly from the sport ministry to Vote 1, the president's office.

Still on the national budget, after Finance Minister Erika Schafuda's mid-year budget announcement, economist Almandri Janssen of Simmerstorm Securities has been asked to weigh in on the revised spending plan.

Was it what we hoped for? Not entirely.

We hoped for a clear cost path to back to a primary surplus.

Eu sei.

Mas imagina o que era se a nação dissesse ao mercado o seguinte: estamos a discutir o Orçamento de Estado, hã, por estes dias, vai ser apresentado hoje.

Imagina que o nosso primeiro-ministro, seja ela qual for, dizia ao mercado assim: nós temos nove mil milhões de euros, pra eu buscar um número que, que, que é ventilado, e vamos formar um fundo, um veículo económico.

Isso.

Não me meto em arquitetura, não me meto em coisas, lanço dois, duas folhas, que é o caderno de encargos e o programa de procedimentos, o direito de superfície vai pra rua.

O drama do autarca é eu faço isto e depois os concursos ficam vazios, ninguém, ninguém me vem construir.

Mas se tivermos o, o nosso primeiro, a nação a dizer: "Venham, vocês privados, venham, que a gente compra de volta, compramos, garantimos a re-- a re-a rentabilidade." Mesmo no Orçamento de Estado, seria-

No fundo, é quase fazer uma PPP, se quiser.