Gov't still has special purpose funds for post-Odette relief, think tank exec says

The Philippines still has Special Purpose Funds (SPF) it may tap for emergency relief operations, an official of think tank Institute for Leadership, Empowerment, and Democracy (iLEAD) said.

According to iLEAD executive director Zyra Nadine Suzara, the Philippines can source funds from the Quick Response Funds, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (NDRRM) Funds and the President’s Contingent Funds.

“Typhoon Odette left massive destruction [and] based on experience monitoring funding requests and release during Typhoon Yolanda, it looks like the national government will have to spend billions just for humanitarian relief — food, water, emergency shelter, medicines,” Suzara said in a Twitter post.

“Fund will also be needed immediately for debris clearing, transportation and logistics, reestablishing power and utilities especially in remote areas. Otherwise, relief operations — not even by the international community — cannot begin,” she added.

She was referring to Super Typhoon Yolanda (international name: Haiyan), which caused billions of damages to the Philippines in 2013.

Her remarks came after President Rodrigo Duterte told victims of Typhoon Odette that the government is already deep in debt, as loans were inked to finance hotels to shoulder the quarantines of incoming overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

“You know, we don’t have money left. I’m not saying this so that the government won’t have to do anything anymore, but to be totally honest, when the COVID pandemic first started, there was no spending limit," Duterte said in Cebuano language, which was translated to English by the Presidential Communications Operations Office.

Latest data from the Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) show that the government’s running debt stock swelled to a fresh record-high and nearing the P12 trillion mark as of end-October.

Suzara said among the possible funding sources are the P6.5 billion total available balance of the 2020 and the 2021 NDRRM Fund and the Contingent Fund, along with the unutilized balance in this year’s national budget.

Citing data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Suzara said that only P3.4 trillion of the P4.5 trillion has been released to government agencies as of December 1, 2020.

“Therefore, there is around P1.1 trillion in the 2021 GAA that has not be used. Might be lower if that is updated to status of fund to date, but there is no way P1.1 trillion can be spent in a matter of a few weeks,” she explained.

Latest data from the DBM show that as of November 20, 2021, 92.5% of the P4.506-trillion budget or P4.166 trillion has already been released, leaving a total of P339.925 million.

GMA News Online has reached out to the DBM for comment on the latest remarks, but no response has been received as of this posting.

SPFs are programmed appropriations in the General Appropriations Act to cover expenditures for specific purposes for which recipient departments or agencies have not yet been identified during budget preparation.

Among the SPFs are the NDRRM Fund, formerly Calamity Fund; Contingent Fund; Pension and Gratuity Fund; and Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund. —LDF, GMA News