The House of Representatives on Friday scrapped P35 billion worth of funding for Strengthening Assistance for Government Infrastructure Program (SAGIP) lodged under the unprogrammed fund.
This developed after the House plenary rejected the motion of Akbayan party-list Rep. Chel Diokno to remove the entire P249 billion unprogrammed appropriations during the period of amendments on the proposed P6.793 trillion budget for 2026.
Items under the unprogrammed fund are only funded when there is an excess revenue collection or funds from foreign loans or grants.
House appropriations panel chairperson and Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Suansing said the removal of the P35 billion funding as additional funding for the government infrastructure program is already sufficient since the new unprogrammed appropriations would only provide support for the Philippine government’s counterpart funding for infrastructure programs under foreign-assisted projects, as well as social services programs.
“Infrastructure projects would no longer be part of the authorized uses for unprogrammed appropriations, save for infrastructure projects under foreign-assisted projects and for strengthening assistance for social programs, which would be P45 billion in total,” Suansing said.
“Aside from foreign assisted program, all of those relate to programs under the Department of Agriculture such as subsidies to farmers, rice subsidies…under the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) as an augmentation for the 4Ps (conditional cash transfer program for the poorest of the poor), given that there is an expected shortfall in the funding for 4Ps due to the reduction [of its budget] from 2025,” Suansing said.
Suansing then said that the Philippine government counterpart for foreign-assisted projects may not be removed from the unprogrammed appropriations because the government will be at risk of being sued for breach of contract.
“In terms of the treatment for the infrastructure projects under foreign-assisted projects, as much as we would like to put all of them as separate line items under programmed appropriations, these projects did not make it to the deadline during the budget preparation,” Suansing said.
“For foreign-assisted projects to be included as programmed appropriations, it would require two things: a finalized contract with a multilateral or bilateral partner providing the foreign assistance,” she added.
“And second, NEDA (National Economic Development Authority) board approval. These projects are currently under unprogrammed appropriations since these did not make it to the deadline for these requirements,” Suansing said.
“And given that we know for a fact that these projects will start in the year 2026, we need to fund them [under unprogrammed funds] because otherwise we will be reneging on our international commitments,” she added.
“So for that reason, Madam Chair, as much as we would also like to recognize the point of our distinguished colleague, the Honorable Chel Diokno, to remove unprogrammed appropriations in toto,” Suansing said.
In an earlier interview, House Deputy Speaker and Antipolo Rep. Ronaldo Puno said removing the entire unprogrammed appropriations under the proposed P6.793 trillion budget for 2026 would be an inefficient way of budgeting
“Ngayon, dun sa unprogrammed na sinasabi nilang baka gamitin sa walang kwenta, kailangan lagi may unprogrammed sa budget kasi hindi naman fixed yung income ng gobyerno. Depende sa [revenue] collection, income from different sources,” Puno said.
(On unprogrammed funds being prone to abuse, we need an unprogrammed budget because the government does not have a fixed income. It depends on revenue collection and other sources.)
“Kung susundin mo lang yung patakaran sa paano [pwede] gamitin ‘yung unprogrammed, hindi magkakaproblema eh. Pag hindi mo dinagyan ng unprogrammed na ganyan, pag may additional collections, wala kang pwedeng paglagyan nun. So ilalagay mo yun sa savings. Sa government budgeting, hindi efficient yung ganun. Kasi kailangan ang gobyerno ay kumikita, at kailangan magastos iyon. Otherwise, the economy will slow down,” he added.
(If you will just follow the rules for the use of unprogrammed funds, we will have problems. Because in the event we incur an excess revenue and we don’t have unprogrammed funds, you won’t have a budget item to spend that on. You will have to put it under savings. In government, that would be inefficient. The government should be raising revenues and spending them. Otherwise, the economy will slow down.) –NB, GMA Integrated News
