DBM Press Release
Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary and Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) Chairperson Amenah F. Pangandaman announced that the proposed FY 2026 budget for basic and higher education, amounting to Php 1.224 trillion, reached 4.0 percent of the country’s GDP—meeting the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) recommended spending for education for the first time.
“The DBM worked very hard to fully fund this mission to save our children and achieve this breakthrough child-responsive budget target, and I hope Congress will also support this,” Secretary Pangandaman said during the DBCC Briefing on the FY 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP) to the House Committee on Appropriations on August 18, 2025.
Of the said amount, Php 928.52 billion, or the largest share of the proposed FY 2026 budget, will go to the Department of Education (DepEd). Additionally, Php 134.99 billion is earmarked for State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), Php 34.00 billion for the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), and Php 20.24 billion for the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
“This is a first, and we want to thank the President for supporting us as we ensure that the government immediately responds to the crisis in nutrition and early childhood development,” Secretary Pangandaman added.
The DBCC Chairperson also shared how the government is implementing the Program Convergence Budgeting (PCB) Approach—an inter-agency effort to eliminate program duplication and align targets, beneficiaries, resources, and timelines across agencies, as directed by the President.
Among the new PCB programs introduced for FY 2026 is the Building Early Growth through Integrated Nurturing (BEGIN) Program, which aims to address stunting and other recommendations in the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM2) Year II Report.
Finally, the Budget Chief called on Congress to support the government’s goal of securing a better future for Filipino children: “Together, let us take immediate action to fight child malnutrition, address the learning crisis, and support our youth in fulfilling their dreams.”
READ MORE:
FY 2026 National Expenditure Program:
https://www.dbm.gov.ph/index.php?view=article&id=3523:national-expenditure-program-fy-2026&catid=400
FY 2026 President’s Budget Message:
https://www.dbm.gov.ph/index.php?view=article&id=3529:2026-presidents-budget-message&catid=400
END
