SENATE President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson over the weekend urged the public to guard how the executive branch spends the P6.7 trillion 2026 national budget. The Senate and House of Representatives are set to ratify today the bicameral conference committee report on the 2026 budget bill, which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is expected to sign into law in the first week of January 2026. Lacson, in a radio interview on Saturday, said public vigilance on the 2026 budget must not stop at its approval and signing into law but must continue through its implementation. He said that while religious and civil society groups monitored the bicameral debates on the crafting of the budget bill, their next challenge is to guard how the executive branch spends taxpayers’ money in 2026. “The same vigilance shown by the public led by the Catholic Church, religious groups and civil society organizations must be maintained in watching over the budget’s implementation,” Lacson said. “Our people must not let down their guard because the 2026 budget will show if there is indeed reform for our government and our nation. We must learn from the lessons of corruption in the budgets of 2025 and prior years,” he said in Filipino and English. Lacson also said that while the majority of fellow senators share his reform-minded mentality, there are only 24 senators who need the support of the public in flagging wrongdoing. Earlier, the senator said the Senate put in place several general and special provisions to serve as safety nets in the implementation of the 2026 budget measure. These included absolutely no guarantee letters allowed and any form of political patronage in providing free medical assistance. He said the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients should be implemented under the Universal Health Care (UHC) program and in pursuit of complying with the UHC law. Lacson said a monthly oversight on infrastructure and farm-to-market road project implementation is needed, complete with grid coordinates for easy monitoring by media and the public.