The Bicameral Conference Committee deliberations over the 2026 national budget, set to begin on Friday, will be pushed to Saturday, December 13, to reconcile differing provisions and amounts, announced Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III on Thursday.

“We are constrained to move the Bicam to Saturday because the technical staff of both The House and The Senate requested one more day to craft the details of the matrix and reconcile the conflicting provisions and amounts, given that budget documents this year are disaggregated and the technical descriptions are included per project,” Sotto explained, as reported by RH 28 Raymund Dadpaas.

“We are making sure all details are exhibited and exposed for transparency so the HOR (House of Representatives) can examine our version and for us to examine theirs. This includes all annexes,” he added.

Earlier, the House approved a resolution enabling open bicameral proceedings for the ₱6.793 trillion national budget.

House Committee on Appropriations Chairperson and Nueva Ecija 1st District Rep. Mikaela Suansing assured the lower chamber will continue to uphold transparency in its discussions for the country’s budget next year, noting that it has backed the livestreaming of proceedings and has dissolved the small committee earlier flagged for alleged insertions in the 2025 budget.

The Bicam will take place at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).