Senate President Francis Escudero on Monday stressed the need to scrutinize agencies with low absorptive capacity in the national budget, including the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).

Escudero said the Senate will look into the BARMM's 2024 budget utilization rate during the chamber's plenary deliberation of its proposed 2025 national fund.  

Escudero lamented the need to look into reasons as to why some agencies have low budget utilization. 

“Kailangan naming malaman kung bakit nga ba yan ganyan, dahil kung ganyan kababa ang kanilang paggastos sayang ulit yung fiscal space na ibinibigay sa kanila (We need to understand that case because the fiscal space given to them will just be wasted if their spending is remains low),” he said in interview. 

The BARMM’s budget is being financed through an annual block grant, additional subsidies from the national government, and revenues generated from national taxes and charges within the Bangsamoro territorial jurisdiction.

The national government has allocated a P70.5 billion block grant for BARMM’s 2024 budget, with P5.08 billion as shares in the national taxes collected within the BARMM, and P5 billion for the Special Development Fund (SDF).

However, Escudero lamented that the BARMM government has only utilized 40 to 50 percent of its 2024 budget.

“Kada budget tinitignan yan, yung absorptive capacity ng kada ahensiya. Kasi nga naman hindi ba medyo makapal ang mukha? Hihingi ng mas malaking budget next year pero hindi naman nila nagagalaw o nauubos yung budget nila sa kasalukuyang taon. Pangunahin na ‘dyan ay ang BARMM (We scruitinie each budget, the absorptive capacity of every agency. Isn’t it quite audacious to ask for a larger budget for the next year when they haven't even utilized or spent their current year’s budget?BARMM is on top of them),” he said. 

Escudero clarified that they are not looking to cut the funding of certain agencies but rather to focus on reallocating the funds.

“Hindi natin ibinababa o tinatanggal yung pondo, pero pwedeng gamitin muna sa iba dahil na nga rin na ayaw nating patuloy tumaas ang ating utang dahil lamang allocate tayo ng allocate dinedeposito lang pala nila sa bangko at hindi ginagastos (We are not reducing or removing the funds, but these can be used for other purposes temporarily because we don’t want our debt to keep increasing just because we keep allocating funds that are merely deposited in the bank and not being spent),” he said.