SC urged to stop AKAP implementation

Several groups on Friday filed a petition before the Supreme Court (SC) seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the implementation of the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) under the 2025 national budget.

The petitioners are the 1Sambayan Coalition, Sanlakas, Advocates for National Interest, and other individuals.

Meanwhile, the respondents are the Senate of the Philippines, the House of Representatives, the Office of the Executive Secretary, the Department of Budget and Management, the Department of Finance, and the Department of Public Works and Highways.

According to the petitioners, AKAP has the “badges of a congressional pork barrel.”

The petitioners cited a previous ruling that defined pork barrel as a “lump-sum discretionary fund” wherein legislators can control aspects of its utilization.

They noted that officials have admitted that lawmakers participate in the implementation of AKAP by identifying, endorsing, and referring specific individual beneficiaries who meet the qualifications.

“Respondents try to play down such participation by claiming that the endorsement or referrals of individual beneficiaries may still be overruled by officers of the Executive branch on the basis of certain parameters,” they said.

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“However, it is clear from Belgica that the participation of lawmakers being ‘merely recommendatory’ does not alter its unconstitutional tenor,” they added.

Opposition lawmakers from the Makabayan bloc had criticized AKAP, saying it was designed to enable vote-buying ahead of the May midterm elections. Some House leaders, however, rejected this claim.

House Deputy Speaker and Quezon Representative Jayjay Suarez previously explained that AKAP targets the "near-poor"  sector—families on the brink of poverty due to unexpected crises like illness or economic shifts.

The petitioners also questioned the provisions on zero subsidy for the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation and a lower budget given to the education sector.

They asked the high court to direct the Senate and the House to convene in a special session and enact a special budget to remedy the alleged unconstitutional deficiencies.

Before this petition, the group of former executive secretary and senatorial aspirant Vic Rodriguez and Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro Ungab had filed a petition seeking to declare the 2025 national budget unconstitutional amid alleged irregularities, including the blank items in the bicameral conference committee report.

The SC has set the oral arguments on this petition for May 19. —VBL, GMA Integrated News