The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on Tuesday clarified that separate funding sources are used to release additional allocations for government disaster response, not from unprogrammed funds.
Following the recent approval of P740.834 million in replenishment for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of National Defense–Office of Civil Defense (OCD), Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said the funds came from the nearly P30-billion National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Fund (NDRRMF) and the agencies’ respective Quick Response Funds (QRF).
“There’s a QRF and NDRRMF that’s almost P30 billion yearly and QRF which are inserted in our frontliner departments,” Pangandaman said.
The budget chief explained that unprogrammed appropriations (UA) can only be used when no other funding sources are available, and only if the government generates additional revenue.
“We also use the contingency funds of the President, and we can also use the (UA), again, if the UA has ‘triggers’ which require its use, if you have no other source to get funds from,” Pangandaman said.
“But you need to have extra revenue before you can release it,” she added.
Recently, lawmakers such as House Rep. Chel Diokno raised concerns over the P243-billion unprogrammed budget in the proposed 2026 national budget, proposing to reduce it to zero.
“If these items are truly part of the budget priorities then they should be included in the programmed appropriations of their respective department’s budgets,” Diokno said during his amendment speech on 10 October.
The proposal, however, was rejected during deliberations, with budget officials citing prior commitments to multilateral and bilateral partners and other programs listed under unprogrammed appropriations.