P591.8 billion set aside for ayuda programs in proposed 2025 budget

A total of P591.8 billion has been earmarked for the government's cash assistance or ayuda programs for poor families under the proposed 2025 national budget, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) said Wednesday.

DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said that of this amount, the government's conditional cash transfer program Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, also known as 4Ps, has the biggest share with P114.2 billion.

"Kasama na rin po dito [sa mga pinaglaanan ng pondo ay] 'yung AICS (Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation), TUPAD (Tulong Pang-hanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers), 'yung free tertiary education, kasama na rin po dito 'yung mga SLP (Sustainable Livelihood Program) under DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development)," said Pangandaman before the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) at the Senate.

(Funds were also allocated for AICS, TUPAD, free tertiary education, and the SLP under the DSWD.)

However, the DBM said that the DSWD's Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program or AKAP was no longer included in the 2025 National Expenditure Program.

The DBM said that the AKAP cash aid program, which provides a one-time P5,000-aid to families earning only up to P23,000 a month, was "not requested by the DSWD in their budget proposal for 2025."

However, Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel said that AKAP was not also requested to be funded in 2024, but still "found its way" to this year's national budget.

Senate committee on finance chairperson Grace Poe assured Pimentel that there would be no sudden insertions during the bicameral conference.

"I can assure our minority leader that we will keep a watchful eye. Kung ano lang 'yung na-approve natin (Only what we have approved will be reflected)," she said.

In February, DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian said that "not a single centavo" of the P26.7-billion AKAP budget for 2024 has been spent amid the allegations that the money had been used to buy signatures for the people's initiative for Charter change. — VDV, GMA Integrated News