Bato: House members to use AKAP to influence ’25 polls

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SEN. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa yesterday imputed members of the House of Representatives allegedly had a hidden agenda when they inserted the multi-billion-peso allocation for the Ayuda Para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) in this year’s national budget.

“Pambili ng boto yan. Ano pa ba ang iisipin natin? …Talagang ginawa yan ng House of Representatives for their own consumption, for whatever, kung anong gusto nilang gawin, pero DSWD pa rin ang nag-iimplement (Congressmen will use that to buy the votes of the people. What else will we think of it? … That was created by the House of Representatives for their own consumption, for whatever purpose it may serve them, but the DSWD [Department of Social Welfare and Development] is the implementing agency),” Dela Rosa said in a statement.

He also said: “I strongly opposed that particular item in the [2025] budget).”

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The AKAP has an appropriation of P26 billion in the signed General Appropriations Act (GAA), which is lower than the P39 billion approved by House lawmakers.

AKAP is a program under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) that distributes one-time cash aid to “near poor” minimum wage earners. It first materialized in the 2024 budget as a P26.7-billion item reportedly inserted by the House.

The program was not part of the 2025 National Expenditure Plan (NEP) submitted by Malacañang to Congress. It was added by the House and allotted P39 billion in its approved version and was deleted in the Senate version.

The bicameral budget conference committee compromised to fund it and allocated P26 billion for the program. Of this amount, P21 billion will be for referrals of congressmen, while P5 billion will be for the referrals of senators.

President Marcos Jr. has placed the AKAP under conditional implementation to “ensure that the people’s funds are utilized in accordance with their authorized and stated purpose.”

Under the 2025 GAA, the cash aid program will be implemented in coordination with the DSWD, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

In line with this, Dela Rosa called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to prohibition the distribution of financial aids during the campaign period so as not to “influence” the voters’ decision on Election Day.

“So, dapat ipagbawal ng Comelec yan (So, that must be prohibited by the Comelec),” he said.

He likewise said the DSWD should prohibit the attendance of politicians during the distribution of financial assistance such as AKAP to insulate the social assistance programs from politics.

Dela Rosa said he is not against giving financial aid to the needy, but politicians should not be allowed to join during their distribution since these might be used as a campaign platform for this year’s national and local elections.

He said politicians might make it appear that the money came from their own pockets.

“Kung tutuusin sana, kung out of the picture ang politico diyan, totally ha, let the DSWD do it, distribute it — that is government money, that is people’s money, ibigay yan sa taumbayan – then without the presence of politicians, without politicians’ intervention, napakaganda sana (Financial assistance is good if we do not allow politicians to distribute them. Just let the DSWD do it – that’s government money, that’s people’s money. Without the presence of politicians, without the politicians’ intervention, it would be better),” he said.

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