MANILA, Philippines —  A P1-billion fund for rehabilitating infrastructure projects damaged by recent tropical cyclones has been approved for release by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

The fund will be released to the Department of Public Works and Highways.

The DPWH was one of the frontline agencies that used up its funds for relief and rehabilitation efforts in the aftermath of cyclones that hit the Philippines, according to Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman.

“That is why when the DPWH requested for additional budget, we immediately acted on it and found ways to provide it,” she said yesterday.

“As directed by President Marcos, we shall continue to ensure that we provide needed support to crucial initiatives aimed at mitigating the impact of natural calamities,” she added.

Pangandaman on Wednesday approved the release of the Special Allotment Release Order, which shall be valid for obligation until Dec. 31, 2025.

The government has allocated P22.736 billion this year for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund, she noted.

To date, at least P22.479 billion has been released to various state agencies and government-owned and controlled corporations.

Of the amount, about P13.888 billion was for the augmentation of agencies’ quick response fund, the DBM said.

Meanwhile, around 12 million low-income Filipinos would benefit from the proposed P39.8-billion budget for the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP), House Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin said yesterday.

The Senate earlier deleted the allocation for the cash aid program in the proposed 2025 budget inserted by the House of Representatives.

Garin said returning the AKAP allocation should be considered by the bicameral conference committee.

The program, she said, serves as a safety net for near-poor people not covered by the conditional cash transfer Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program.

“This program bridges the gap for those who are ineligible for regular assistance yet are vulnerable due to low wages and the high cost of food and other essential items,” Garin said.

“It seems that the senators are not aware of the true state of the Filipino people, especially those who are minimum wage earners,” she added.

Speaker Martin Romualdez yesterday urged the bicameral conference committee to come up with a spending measure that would respond to the daily needs of Filipinos.

The committee is tasked to reconcile the House and Senate’s versions of the 2025 budget.

“We owe it to every Filipino who wakes up every day trying to make ends meet, hoping that their government has their back. Let’s give them a budget that says, ‘Yes, we hear you. Yes, we care. And yes, we’re doing something about it,’” Romualdez said in his opening remarks at the first meeting of the committee.

Following House hearings on Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged misuse of funds, rights group Karapatan yesterday renewed its call for the government to junk confidential and intelligence funds (CIF).

Resource persons at the hearings bared that Duterte ordered her special disbursement officer to turn over more than P200 million of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and Department of Education (DepEd)’s CIF to ranking officials of her security group.

“Hundreds of millions of pesos of Duterte’s CIF ended up in the hands of military men,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.

“With the former regime’s war on drugs utilizing a reward system funded by CIF monies, there is ample reason to believe that the same reward system operated within the military to bankroll the surveillance, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other human rights violations perpetrated against activists, human rights defenders and other dissenters,” she claimed.

Aside from the OVP and DepEd’s CIF, the group said “billions have been spent and allotted for the Office of the President, with P4.5 billion this year and P10.2 billion for 2025.”

“The CIF is simply the old pork barrel in different garb since its ‘confidentiality’ generally puts it beyond the purview of state auditors,” Palabay said.

The President’s P4.5-billion CIF allotment in 2024 does not include the P100 million allocated for the National Security Council, P300 million for the National Intelligence and Security Agency and P8 billion for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, she noted.

“The Office of the President actually has P12.9 billion at its disposal, all for ‘confidential’ and intelligence purposes and all unprogrammed and beyond public scrutinyagilaplay,” Palabay said. – Jose Rodel Clapano, Artemio Dumlao

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