‘AKAP defunded pensioners, OFWs’

The controversial Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program, or AKAP, of the Department of Social Welfare and Development defunded the pensions of retired military and uniformed personnel in the billions of pesos, Senator Imee Marcos revealed on Tuesday.

Marcos highlighted the discrepancy in the allocation for the Pension and Gratuity Fund in the General Appropriations Act of 2024 and the National Expenditure Program submitted to Congress.

Under this year’s national budget, she pointed out that the fund suffered a P110.25-billion cut, from P253,205,826,000 to P142,956,826,000.

The Pension and Gratuity Fund covers the payment of pensions, retirement benefits, separation benefits, and incentives for uniformed personnel and other government employees.

Likewise, Senator Marcos lamented the P5.4-billion cut in the P15.31-billion proposed budget for the Department of Migrant Workers in the NEP and the total deletion of programmed funding for foreign-assisted flagship projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

The DSWD’s AKAP, which was given P26.7 billion, was first mentioned during the resumption of the Senate public hearing on alleged payoffs in the signature drive for the People’s Initiative.

Marcos, who defended the department’s proposed budget for this year, described the cash aid program as “alien,” stressing that the budget item was not included in the department’s budget proposal for 2024.

The DSWD’s AKAP, which was given P26.7 billion, was first mentioned during the resumption of the Senate public hearing on alleged payoffs in the signature drive for the People’s Initiative.

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Social Justice, Welfare, and Rural Development reiterated that the AKAP, which also has more than P33 billion in unprogrammed funds, was an “insertion” by the House of Representatives in the 2024 national budget’s final version to which the e-signatures of senators were attached after the fact.

“The President did not mention AKAP in the NEP, nor was it in the bicameral version of the GAA, yet it appeared in the final printed version,” the senator pointed out.

“About P60 billion was allotted, yet we don’t know if it was for rice, jobs, or outright cash assistance,” she said, citing the DSWD’s admission that it had yet to draw up the program’s guidelines for implementation.

The senator said she was consulting with the Department of Budget and Management and the DSWD ahead of a possible Senate investigation into the AKAP, apart from the ongoing probe by the Senate electoral reforms committee on the PI.

“I am not against the AKAP, but its misuse for political ends. We all know this year’s national budget is an election budget,” Marcos said, referring to the national and local elections in 2025.

With Jing Villamente