PRESIDENT Duterte on Monday told lawmakers at least P10.441 billion had been realigned or reprogrammed, including more than P8 billion from the 2019 budget, to fund government measures to address the health, social and economic impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.
In his fifth report to Congress, the President said the amount is on top of the P246.283 billion that was pooled from savings from discontinued programs, activities, and projects and abandoned Special Purpose Funds. Of this, P245.126 billion had already been released as of last week.
Duterte said that as of April 23, P5.065 billion worth of funds sourced from the 2019 and 2020 budgets was realigned to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE); P3.908 billion (2019 and 2020 budgets) reallocated to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD); P230.817 million (2019 budget) reprogrammed to the Department of National Defense (DND); and P41.09 million worth of trust receipts reprogrammed to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Other programmed funds under the 2020 budget were also reallocated to the Department of Health (DOH) (P600 million), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) (P520.6 million), Department of Science and Technology (DOST) (P53.23 million), and Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP) (P21.629 million).
To prevent unnecessary expenses while the country battles the infectious virus, Duterte said the DBM has issued a memorandum ordering the observance of austerity measures, including the discontinuance of “at least 10 percent of the total released allotments for Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses and Capital Outlay earmarked for certain items effective 01 April 2020.”
UPDATES
The realignment of the budget is in pursuant of Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which empowered the President to realign the current budget for the purpose of addressing the COVID 19 pandemic.
As of April 23, government had already released P196 billion of the P246 billion COVID fund to DSWD, P1.5 billion to DOLE, P30.82 billion to the Bayanihan grant to cities and municipalities, P6.197 billion to the Bayanihan grant to provinces, P1.816 billion to DOH, P8.5 billion to the Department of Agriculture (DA), P93 million to DILG-Philippine National Police, and P150 million to the DND-Armed Forces of the Philippines. ,
The President also said that as of April 24, the government had already distributed more than P33 billion worth of cash aid through different department programs, the biggest of which is the P31.123 billion under the Social Amelioration Program (SAP) of the DSWD, which includes the P5,000 to P8,000 cash aid for low income households, Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) beneficiaries and public utility drivers been affected by the Luzon lockdown.
Also included are the more than P2.4 billion distributed by the DOLE for formal and informal sector workers, and overseas Filipino workers; and the P645 million released by the DA to rice farmers.
UNUSED FUNDS
Prior to the release of the report to Congress, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque clarified that the national government only has P77 billion worth of unused funds from the 2019 budget, contrary to the claim of Sen. Panfilo Lacson that there is over P900 billion of available unused budget that can be tapped for COVID programs.
Roque said Budget Secretary Wendel Avisado had told him that the amount is only around P77 billion, and that the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is now coordinating with different agencies to determine the exact amount that is available to the national government.
Roque said the DBM would know by April 30 how much more funding it can realign to COVID-19 efforts.
“Let me clear it, the total unreleased from the 2019 budget is not P900 billion, it is only P77 billion, and by April 30 we will know how much the uncommitted funds that we can realign from the different agencies and departments,” he said.
Lacson, reacting to Roque’s statement, said: “My reference is always the SAAOB (Statement of Allotments, Obligations and Balances) coming from the DBM. They only have as of Q3 and that’s where I based my data – P989B unused appropriations and that’s for the executive department only. We requested for an updated SAAOB or ending Q4 only this morning. As per DBM, wala pa daw.”
Roque said Avisado also told him that the government had already spent some P350 billion of the close to P400 billion COVID-related funds.
Lacson has questioned Malacañang’s plan to seek a second supplemental budget from Congress, pointing out that it can tap available funds from the 2019 unused funds of different branches of government and constitutional offices which he said could reach P989 billion.
The DBM raised the possible second supplemental budget after President Duterte extended the enhanced community quarantine until May 15 in Metro Manila, CALABARZON and , Central Luzon regions, and in the provinces of Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Oriental Mindoro, Occidental Mindoro, Albay, Catanduanes.
Duterte had also placed under the enhanced community quarantine the provinces of Benguet, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Zambales, Antique, Iloilo, Aklan, Capiz, Cebu, Davao del Norte, and Davao de Oro and the cities of Cebu and Davao until May 15 pending further review and assessment of the situation in the said areas until April 30. If the Covid-19 situation improves, the “high risk” classification can be reduced to “moderate risk” or “low risk.”
ADB LOAN
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a $200 million loan to support the Philippine government’s efforts to provide emergency cash subsidies to vulnerable households.
“This global pandemic, of a kind not seen in the last century, has disrupted the livelihoods of millions of Filipinos and could set back the very substantial gains the country has made in reducing poverty in recent years,” Ahmed Saeed, ADB vice president, said in a statement.
“The new loan supports the government’s emergency subsidy program, which was designed to help vulnerable households get through this very difficult period and avoid falling into poverty,” he added.
ADB said that its $200 million loan, under the Social Protection Support Project—Second Additional Financing, will contribute to the $726 million required to provide emergency subsidies to 4Ps households in April and May 2020.
The loan comes after the signing of the $1.5 billion loan from the ADB’s COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program last Thursday.
The multilateral agency said two grants approved in March totaling $8 million are supporting the delivery of food baskets to at least 140,000 vulnerable households in Metro Manila and nearby provinces, purchase of emergency medical supplies, and setting up of a new laboratory that will increase the country’s COVID-19 testing capacity by 3,000 tests a day.
ADB is also preparing an Expanded Social Assistance Project to support the government’s medium-term financing of the 4Ps program. — With Raymond Africa and Angela Celis
