Cagayan de Oro’s 2nd District Congressman, Rufus Rodriguez, questions the low budget share of Visayas and Mindanao on the P6.793 trillion 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP) Budget.
During the House Committee on Appropriations' briefing with the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) on August 18, he raised attention to the government's spending plan, emphasizing disproportionate shares of Visayas and Mindanao.
Rodriguez cited sources from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) that Mindanao will only have a 15.4% share, and Visayas will have 11.1%, compared to Luzon with 24.4% and the National Capital Region (NCR) with 13.3%.
He said that Mindanao’s budget allocation is getting significantly lower than the previous congress, citing 16.6% in 2022 and even 17% during the 14th and 15th Congress.
"Mindanao has a population of 26 million Mindanaonons, and that is exactly 22.3% of the December figure of the Philippine population of 116 million. Why is Mindanao getting smaller in terms of the budget?" Rodriguez, chairman of the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, asked DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman during the briefing.
He also expressed concerns regarding the budget’s allocation and that it still remains under the ‘nationwide’ programs, most of which were primarily implemented in Metro Manila.
He argued that such a plan makes it difficult to ensure transparency and also makes it difficult for people to benefit from it.
Rodriguez further reiterates that the equitable budget allotment of Visayas and Mindanao must be reconsidered and that it should accurately reflect the population size and economic contribution of the said regions.
