House eyes budget cuts of agencies with low utilization rate to fund AKAP

The House committee on appropriations could go as far as proposing budget cuts to agencies with low utilization rates to fund the chamber’s so-called pet project, Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP), its chairperson confirmed Sunday. 

The House-backed AKAP did not receive an endorsed budget from President Marcos Jr. in the 2026 National Expenditure Program. The NEP is the President’s budget, which the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) submitted to Congress last week for its approval.

Citing Congress’s power to realign line items in the NEP, appro chair Mikaela Suansing said AKAP allocation is still feasible, with the funding possibly sourced from ineffective programs or agencies with the lowest budget utilization rates. 

In fact, she claimed that realigning a certain budget to fund or insert other items in the NEP is a common practice being performed by Congress over the years.

“It’s within the House’s prerogative to decide what it wants to do with the NEP. So, if the discussion comes to that, we’ll take a look at that,” Suansing said in an interview. “What we will be doing is a realignment; we will plan it out from which government agency we can pull the funds from.”

The House, she added, could also draw the funds from other aid programs, such as the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations of the Department of Social Welfare and Development—the AKAP’s implementing agency. 

AKAP, suspected conduit for the pork barrel, was not “included in the priority programs” of the Marcos administration, due to “limited fiscal space,” DBM Secretary Ameenah Pangandaman had explained.

The initial proposed funding of the entire agency reached P10 trillion, but Panagandaman said P6.793 trillion was the maximum amount they could approve, resulting in some programs, including AKAP, not getting any allocation. Despite this, the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations, another social program under the DSWD, received a budget.

Another factor contributing to the budget slash was that AKAP still has about P13 billion left over from its 2025 budget allocation.

AKAP, a brainchild of Speaker Martin Romuadez, provides one-time cash aid ranging from P3,000 to P5,000 to “near poor” households with total earnings of less than the minimum wage.

The program, however, has drawn backlash for abruptly obtaining P26.16 billion in this year’s General Appropriations Act (GAA) despite it not being explicitly listed in the NEP, raising suspicions of unlawful “budget insertions” by Congress.

Originally, the proposed funding for AKAP for this year was set at P39.8 billion under the House-approved GAB. The Senate entirely deleted the line item in its version of the GAB, only to partially restore it at the last minute during the closed-door bicameral conference committee meeting.

In 2024 GAA, AKAP also received a substantial funding of P26.7 billion.

According to Suansing, a few lawmakers are urging her to consider funding the AKAP in the 2026 budget, except Romualdez. 

“It is currently being discussed in Congress [because] we need a collective decision on what to do with AKAP. As I mentioned, there is still an ongoing discussion,” she stated.

In his fourth State of the Nation Address in late July, Marcos warned he would not approve a proposed budget that deviates from the NEP regardless of whether it results in a reenacted budget.

The 2025 GAA, initially set at P6.352 trillion, was trimmed to P6.326 trillion after Marcos vetoed P194 billion worth of line items deemed inconsistent with his administration’s priority programs, including P16.7 billion for flood control projects.

Suansing, however, assured that the House will ensure that they will abide by “legal and constitutional requirements” should the chamber decide to fund the AKAP.

The House will kick off the marathon deliberations for the P6.793 national budget starting Monday.