2024 budget earmarks P26-billion cash aid for near poor households

The proposed P5.768 trillion budget for 2024 has earmarked P26.7 billion for expansion of government subsidies to near poor households, Speaker Martin Romualdez said Tuesday.

Romualdez said the program, dubbed as the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program or AKAP, intends to cover 12 million households.

“These are for the construction workers, factory workers, and the like,” Romualdez said.

“That is our endeavor: to cast a wider net to those who still need more support from the government,” Romualdez added.

The office of House appropriations panel chairperson Zaldy Co, in a statement to GMA News Online, said the total funding for the AKAP program is at P60 billion, with P26.7 billion already lodged under the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) budget item for locally funded projects and the remainder under the unprogrammed fund.

Unprogrammed appropriations in the national budget are only funded by the following:

• Excess revenue collection in any non-tax revenue sources from its corresponding revenue collection target as reflected in the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing

• New revenue collection or those arising from new tax or non-tax sources which  are not part of, nor included in, the original revenue sources reflected in the Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing and

• Approved loans for foreign-assisted projects

“This AKAP program is for households whose members are employed but are not earning enough,” Co said in a separate statement.

At present, the DSWD already provides cash subsidies to those in need under the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis program and the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) for poorest households.

The 4Ps, which dates back to 2008, is the government’s flagship anti-poverty program wherein cash assistance is given to poor households provided they comply with conditions promoting human development goals such as children attending school at least 85% of the time, pregnant women availing of government services, attending family development sessions, among others.
—RF, GMA Integrated News