Defunded AKAP has unused P13B — Palace

Despite not having received an allocation in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2026, the Ayuda Para sa Kapos ang Kita (AKAP) Program will not want for funds as it still has money from fiscal year 2025.

In a press briefing Thursday, Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Claire Castro said AKAP still has P13 billion from its P27 billion budget.

The money is being managed by the government agency concerned, which is the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

“The budget for AKAP was very big and out of P27 billion for 2025, DSWD has only used P14 billion, so there is still P13 billion left they can use until the end of 2026,” Castro said, citing information from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Meanwhile, Castro said the DBM has to prioritize the allocation of budget proposals as some agencies exceeded the fiscal capacity of the government.

“The DBM received almost P10 trillion budget proposals for the agencies, so it is necessary to prioritize the agencies that should be prioritized, so most probably that is the reason (AKAP didn’t get an allocation),” she said.

The DSWD has been implementing AKAP since 2023 to help minimum wage earners and those who fall within the program’s categories cushion the effects of inflation and sudden price surges due to unforeseeable events.