The House of Representatives stopped work on the proposed 2027 budget of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) on September 16, and it will not move again until Meta answers for what lawmakers and the agency call unresolved child-safety failures on Facebook. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has been asked to appear before the chamber.
The freeze is the sharpest move yet in a standoff that has been building all year. Congress has debated banning Facebook outright, regulators have studied Meta's takedown record, and the government has pushed the company to open a Philippine office. Holding an entire agency's budget hostage to Meta's answers raises the stakes to a new level.
Why the House hit pause
The deferral came as the chamber worked through agency budgets for 2027. Rather than a routine scheduling slip, House leaders tied the DICT's funding directly to Meta's conduct in the Philippines. The concerns on the table, as reported by Back End News, cover:
- Online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC), a term for the grooming and abuse of minors through online platforms
- The spread of child sexual abuse and exploitation materials (CSAEM) on Meta's services
- Illegal online gambling promoted or facilitated through Facebook
- Cyberbullying, social media addiction, depression, and other mental-health harms affecting Filipino children and young people
What DICT is saying
The agency's statement did not soften the message. "Unlike other technology platforms that have demonstrated meaningful cooperation with authorities and concrete progress in safeguarding users, Meta continues to fall short of its responsibility and commitment to youth safety," the DICT said.
DICT Secretary Henry Aguda went further: "With the enormous scale and reach of its services comes a corresponding obligation to implement effective, measurable safeguards, remove harmful content promptly, and cooperate fully and transparently with Philippine authorities. Accountability cannot be optional."
The agency also drew its bottom line plainly: "The protection of children is non-negotiable. All stakeholders, especially the largest platforms, must be held fully accountable."
Zuckerberg is invited — and specific demands are on the table
The House has called on Zuckerberg himself to attend a hearing on social media safety. No date has been announced, and it is not yet clear whether the Meta CEO has responded or plans to attend.
The DICT's asks of Meta are concrete: more content moderators who understand Philippine culture and context, faster removal of harmful posts, and closer cooperation with Philippine law enforcement. The agency had previously pressed Zuckerberg to act faster against fake news and deepfakes on his platforms.
A year of escalation
The budget freeze did not come out of nowhere. Earlier this year, the Palace ruled out a Facebook ban as DICT and Meta agreed to form a working group on harmful content. The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center separately studied a possible Facebook ban over Meta's slow takedowns. Meta, for its part, committed to opening its first Philippine office to speed up violent-content removals. The DICT has also been taking its platform-accountability case to ASEAN neighbors.
Each of those steps kept the pressure rhetorical or procedural. Freezing the agency's own funding deliberation is different: it converts the Meta question into a condition for the national budget process itself.
What the freeze means for Filipinos
For now, nothing changes for Facebook's tens of millions of Filipino users — the platform stays up, and no ban is on the table. The immediate effect is on the DICT: deliberation of the funding that underwrites its 2027 programs, from connectivity projects to cybersecurity work, is paused until the House is satisfied. The DICT says it will keep working with Congress, law enforcement, child-protection groups, and technology companies to strengthen online safety measures.
The next milestone to watch is the hearing. If Zuckerberg or senior Meta executives appear, the Philippines would join the short list of countries that have put the company's leadership directly on the record about child safety. If they do not, lawmakers have now shown they are willing to let the budget calendar do the talking.
