Speaker: P500B ‘ayuda’ in budget

Next year’s national budget includes almost P500 billion for social amelioration programs or “ayuda” for millions of poor and low-income families, Speaker Martin Romualdez said yesterday.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is set to sign the proposed 2024 spending program today (Wednesday) at the Palace.

“For the first time, under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., we are allocating half-a-trillion pesos, or about nine percent of the national budget, as assistance to the poor and households with insufficient income,” Romualdez said.

“We are hoping that in some way, we are able to support people who badly need government help to get them through hard times,” he said.

The Speaker thanked Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co, chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations; Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; and his colleagues at the House for “a job well done” in crafting a pro-people budget under the Marcos administration.

He said Congress introduced in the budget a new program called AKAP or “Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita.”

“It’s a P60-billion fund whose aim is to provide direct cash assistance to the ‘near poor’ or families earning up to P23,000 a month. At least 12 million households will benefit from it, including low-income workers like those in construction and factories, drivers, food service crew, and the like,” Romualdez said.

He said the target beneficiaries would receive “a one-time cash assistance of P5,000.”

“If the program is successful, we can continue implementing it the following year,” he said.

He said existing government programs targeting the poorest of the poor, like the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation (AICS) under the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Tulong Pang-hanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantage/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) under the Department of Labor and Employment would continue.

Some P23 billion has been appropriated for AICS and P30 billion for TUPAD, he added.

Romualdez said Congress continues to provide funding for President Marcos’ “legacy projects” – Legacy Food Security, Legacy Specialty Hospitals, and Legacy Housing for the poor.

“For Legacy Food Security, we allocated P5 billion to support our farmers with free irrigation, seeds, fertilizer, and other farm inputs. Another P5 billion is appropriated for the buying of their produce at market prices,” he said.

“By providing much-needed capital and buying their harvest, we will not only create jobs and assure the income of our farmers – we can ensure supply of affordable and high-quality local rice,” Romualdez added.

As for Legacy Hospitals, he said the construction of new hospitals or the expansion of existing facilities has already started as ordered by President Marcos last year.

“We hope to finish them within three years. For 2024, we have appropriated P1 billion for UP Philippine General Hospital, P1.5 billion for the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, P1 billion for the Philippine Cancer Center, P1 billion for Philippine Children’s Medical Center, P1 billion for Bicol Regional Medical Center, and P500 million for Batangas Regional Medical Center,” he said.

He said Congress also prioritized funding for the President’s legacy housing program for the poor.

“With government subsidies, more Filipinos can now have access to quality, affordable housing. Since monthly amortization is only P2,500 to P3,500, government housing will be much more affordable than the projects of private developers, which cost about P15,000 a month in amortization,” he said.

For his part, Senate Deputy Majority Leader JV Ejercito expressed confidence the President will not veto any provision of the 2024 budget.

“We trust the President on his discretion,” he said.

Ejercito said the final Congress-approved version of the General Appropriations Bill no longer had confidential and intelligence funds for non-security agencies.

On Monday while in Tokyo, President Marcos said that he considered the removal of the confidential funds for the offices of Vice President Sara Duterte a “settled issue.”

“Well, that [final decision to let go of the confidential funds] was actually the initiative of the Vice President… So, I think as far as I am concerned, it is a settled issue,” he said.

Duterte earlier requested to be given a total of P650 million in confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education which she heads.

She eventually dropped the request, noting that the issue had become “divisive.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Marcos noted that while there seems to be a “differential” between the appropriated funds in the proposed 2024 budget and the actual funds collected by the government, he remained “comfortable with the way the budget has turned out.”

“The budget, I think, very closely follows what our original NEP was,” he said.

“So, there is a certain amount that we now have extra, that we now have to collect…We just have to do the work over the years to make sure that they will cover the differential between the actual appropriated funds and the unappropriated funds that have been appropriated by Congress,” he added.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III earlier said the additional P450 billion in unprogrammed funds and increases in other appropriations made the final version of the budget “unconstitutional.”

“Is that compliant with the Constitution? Our Constitution states that Congress may approve the appropriations proposed by the President for the operations of the government, but it cannot increase the appropriations. Congress can maintain the appropriations or reduce the appropriations, but it cannot increase the appropriations,” the senator said.

“What happened now is that Congress gave the executive branch the authority to spend an amount even greater than what is asked by the executive branch. It’s as simple as that – unconstitutional,” Pimentel added.

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