Big unprogrammed funds contained in 2025 budget

A record-high P6.149 trillion in unprogrammed funds have been inserted in the 2025 national budget approved by Congress’ bicameral conference committee this week.

This has instantly evoked suspicions among budget observers that the huge additional fund may be availed of by House members in their campaign for re-election in the mid-term polls in May. This, in light of their having increased – by more than 100 percent – the House of Representatives’ budget, from P16.3 billion this year to P33.7 billion in 2025.

It’s not clear, from media reportage on the national budget, if that huge amount was different from the P531.665-billion in unprogrammed funds that the national government can use to address unexpected situations or prioritized important projects.

Under the National Expenditure Program (NEP), unprogrammed funds amounted to only P158.665 billion, but the House increased it by P373 billion.

The original program for the national budget was set at P5.767 trillion. This represented P4.009 trillion under the 2024 national budget and P1.757 trillion in automatic appropriations, continuing appropriations from 2023 and unprogrammed appropriations.

Apparently, P382.327 billion in additional unprogrammed appropriations have been inserted in the running budget.

In this regard, the contentious Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) has been restored by the bicameral conference committee. Introduced as a “surprise insertion” by the House in the 2024 national budget, the AKAP provision was heavily criticized by several senators, because it was neither in the NEP nor in the Senate’s approved version of the 2024 annual budget.

Sen. Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate appropriations committee, explained to the media the Senate’s move on the controversial program. She said:

“We have agreed to reduce the AKAP fund. From the initial amount that the House asked for [that was] P39 billion, if I am not mistaken, we were able to lower it to about P26 billion.”

Aside from being a last-minute insertion, the AKAP program was criticized for its “loose wording.” Moreover, it is only being widely available for members of the House.

As a compromise, the House – which has the prerogative to introduce additions to the national budget that it prepares – agreed to provide P5-million AKAP funds for the members of the Senate.

Teodoro Casiño, a former legislator now chairman of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), criticized the AKAP program as a “glaring attempt to legalize ‘ayuda politics’ in time for the 2025 elections.”

“By routing funds through politicians,” he added, AKAP “paves the way for massive vote-buying under the guise of financial assistance, turning the General Appropriations Act (national budget) into an instrument for electioneering.”

A genuine “people’s budget,” Casiño pointed out, should “prioritize the needs of ordinary Filipinos – health, education and livelihood – not the ambitions and pockets of a privileged few.”

The AKAP is supposedly aimed at providing financial aid to people who are unemployed or who earn much less than the minimum wage. The AKAP fund is assigned for implementation by the DSWD.

Unprogrammed appropriations, it must be noted, may only be availed of when revenue is collected from new taxes or from non-tax sources, or there are approved loans for foreign-assisted projects. These factors have not been cited as existing by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

This year, the DBM has already adjusted the national budget two times: it added P65.173 billion last September and, in October, it added P98.904 billion more.

But that hasn’t been all: latest data from the DBM showed that P121.875 billion in unprogrammed funds were added to the national budget in November, the Business Mirror reported yesterday.

Also, DBM figures show that additional funds were given to the following executive departments: P86.037 billion to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH); P5 billion to the Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD); P2.973 billion to the DPWH, Department of Transportation  (DOTr) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) as support for foreign-assisted projects; and P2.816 billion to the Department of Health (DOH) to fund priority social programs for health.

The Department of National Defense has been given a notable increase of P8.857 billion. Besides that, the national government provided P4.320 billion as support for the controversial “barangay development program” of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

Moreover, the 2025 national budget included an increase in soldiers’ subsistence allowance from P150 to P350 a day, or P10,500 a month. Speaker Martin Romualdez disclosed that Marcos Jr. had directed the increase.

Other executive departments were given budgetary increases, as follows:  Information and Communications Technology (DICT), P4.007 billion; Tourism, P262.269 million; Trade and Industry (DTI), Pl.520 million; DENR, P162 million; DILG, P131.4 million; DAR, P108.6 million; DFA, P415.222 million; Migrant Workers, P245 million; Finance, P6.818 million; NEDA, P59.597 million; Presidential Communications Office, P18.254 million and Mindanao Development Authority, P339.327 million.

On the other hand, the following executive departments and agencies have suffered cuts in their annual budgets: DSWD took the biggest cut of P15.923 billion; Commission on Higher Education, P26.912 billion; DOH, P25.795 billion; DA, P20 billion; DOLE, P18.3 billion and DOTr, P16.083 billion.

Although the 1987 Constitution provides that education must be allotted the highest budget, it got a big slash of P11.569 billion. Similarly, state colleges and universities also suffered budget cuts, totalling P7.233 billion. Other reduced allocations were those of the DOJ, P1.603 billion; Housing and Urban Development, P583 million and Science and Technology, P172.5 million.

The proposed budget for the Office of the Vice President (Sara Duterte) has been reduced by P1.3 billion, retaining only its P733-milion allocation as previously approved by both chambers of Congress. The slashed fund was reallocated between the DOH and the DSWD.

No national government subsidy for 2025 has been allocated to PhilHealth. This was because, according to Senator Poe, the initial allocation of P74 billion was removed in the bicameral committee approved budget because the agency has not yet used its P600-billion reserve fund.