UA once sacred

Budget watchdogs consider unprogrammed allocations (UA) a part of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) that is off limits to manipulation since they are not part of the regular budget, yet, since 2022 the use of the UA as a pork wallet has led to it being bloated yearly.

The UA totaled P251.6 billion in 2022, P807.1 billion in 2023, P731.4 billion in 2024, and P363.4 billion in 2025. In next year’s budget, the item reached P243.2 billion.

The UA intends to create a standby fund that will rely on additional revenues or borrowings. The practice at the start of the Marcos administration of placing foreign-assisted projects (FAPs) in the UA suggests it was not planned far in advance.

All FAPs have been under discussion for a long time and involve extensive documentation involving big-ticket items.

These projects should be in the regular budget with line items that can be scrutinized by members of Congress and discussed with the executive branch to ensure that they are appropriately allocated and funded.

Prior to 2022, there were already UA in the budget, but Congress never touched them. Beginning in 2022, however, the UA saw significant increases.

In 2025, the increases originated in the bicameral conference committee and were considered insertions. This was also the period when the flood control projects were introduced, which turned out to be anomalous.

Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno said the zero-UA campaign to remove the discretionary funds will show that Congress is serious about fiscal discipline and the budget is being handled professionally. Big-ticket items should be placed in the regular budget.

Defenders of the UA explained its necessity, noting that foreign-assisted projects that failed to meet deadlines during the budget preparation still require funding.

Budget watchdogs, however, indicated that FAPs are negotiated with international partners and are known well in advance, so these projects should have been included under the programmed items.

If these projects become firm commitments and need to catch up, then a supplemental budget should be requested.

The UA can only be accessed when certain revenue conditions are met, such as non-tax revenue collections exceeding the target or new tax or non-tax revenues are collected.

The executive branch and Congress, which have fiscal discipline, don’t need to put hundreds of billions into the UA.

Since the UA is vulnerable to discretionary use, it becomes a pork barrel that does not have to pass congressional scrutiny, leaving it up to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to decide how, when, and how much to use.

The DBM, through special provisions in the budget law, allows a leeway regarding the use of unprogrammed provisions, which goes against the power of the purse that belongs to Congress.

In the proposed 2026 budget, flood control projects were removed from the UA, and lump sum amounts were allocated to soft projects such as social amelioration projects or ayuda.

The projects in the UA need to undergo typical accountability measures if they are found in the regular budget.

The UA is like a once-efficient part of the budget that was overrun by cancer, needing to be cut off to save the yearly GAA from perversion.