Budget insertions are back under the Senate’s lens after legislators stumbled on a suspicious item that surreptitiously popped up in the final version of the 2024 national budget.

The P26.7-billion Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program, or AKAP, has been on the Senate’s radar since it should not have been in the 2024 General Appropriations Act based on the proper budget process.

The item was not in the third reading of the 2024 budget in the House of Representatives and the Senate, but it materialized in the bicameral conference committee copy of the GAA.

Former Senator Panfilo Lacson said doubts should be raised about the item.

There were no minutes of the meeting between the Senate and House panels in the bicam to reconcile conflicting provisions in the budget, nor did the media cover it.

“There were no other people inside the conference room, which was exclusive to the bicam committees of both houses. So inside, several things could happen,” Lacson said.

The veteran legislator said while he did not see any problem with insertions as they are considered amendments to the budget and a way to efficiently allocate public funds, it is in the individual amendments where personal interests usually intrude.

The section of the budget that had the AKAP program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development had the signatures of senators who said, however, that they did not know about the huge allocation.

This was uncovered as senators combed the 2024 budget for the source of funding for the People’s Initiative, which is a nationwide drive to amend the Constitution that achieved its goal of 12 million signatures in record time.

The PI seeks a single amendment in the provision on the constituent assembly mode of amending the Charter to introduce a two-chamber single-voting process.

This change in the Constitution would effectively dilute the power of the Senate, which would be overwhelmed by the sheer number of House members.

The AKAP has the vague purpose of preventing the so-called “near poor” sector from falling into poverty. The program provides a one-time P5,000 subsidy to each household with a monthly income of P23,000 or less.

While it took years for the government to list the families qualified for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, there was no such problem with the AKAP.

The total amount in the social amelioration package was suspiciously the same as needed to make the PI work: collecting the signatures of 12 percent of the voting population and three percent in every legislative district.

“There is nothing illegal about an item suddenly appearing in the budget after the bicameral conference committee meeting, but there is a violation of trust,” Lacson said.

“What happened with AKAP was that it was concealed and was sneakily inserted. It was included in the DSWD’s budget, but it was placed after the Quick Response Fund,” he revealed.

The controversy stemmed from the senators’ professing not knowing about AKAP.

Lacson said that after the bicameral conference committee, unprogrammed appropriations ballooned from 281 to 731. “Why did they add to the number of unprogrammed appropriations when these were standby appropriations,” he asked.

Such appropriations are usually included in the budget only in anticipation of a surplus, which he said had not happened in the yearly budget now and in the recent past.

He said unprogrammed funds can only be used if there is an accompanying revenue source; thus, there is a need to increase tax collections. A certification from the National Treasury is also needed on the funding source for the unprogrammed funds.

AKAP is a poorly crafted excuse for a program with a suspicious aim, and it does not help improve the public perception of scheming elected officials seeking to subvert the electorate’s will.