Zero budget for unprogrammed funds? That won’t happen — Palace

It would be unlikely to completely remove unprogrammed appropriations in the proposed P 6.793 trillion national budget for 2026 as these are allocations that may be used for emergency cases and situations, Malacañang said on Wednesday.

In a press briefing, Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Atty. Claire Castro was asked to comment on the call of House Assistant Minority Floor Leader and Akbayan Representative Chel Diokno to scrap all unprogrammed funds in next year’s spending plan.

“Parang hindi po yata maaaring mangyari iyan. Marami pong nagiging programa ang gobyerno, at maaari pong magamit po ito sa pangangailangan, kung may kailangang mga emergency cases or situations,” Castro said.

(I think that won’t happen. The government has a lot of programs and these appropriations can be used in emergency cases or situations.)

Castro explained that unprogrammed funds have adequate safeguards prior to disbursement.

“But tandaan po natin, hindi naman po ito nagagasta nang basta-basta. Katulad ng sinabi natin kahapon, kahit po ito ay nasa UA or unprogrammed appropriation, ang ibig pong sabihin nito ay hindi po ito agad-agad makukuha kung wala pong sapat na dokumento,” she added.

(But let’s remember, these appropriations cannot be easily used. Like we’ve said before, unprogrammed appropriations cannot be disbursed easily without sufficient documents.) 

Castro also assured that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is also vigilant in safeguarding the release of unprogrammed funds.

“Hindi po ba may mga nagrireklamo na hindi raw sila nabibigyan o nari-release-an ng mga pondo? Iyan po ang ginagawa ng Pangulo dahil ito po ay nasa ilalim ng conditional implementation. Ibig sabihin po, pinangangalagaan ng Pangulo ang pondo ng bayan,” she said.

(There were complaints that they did not receive the funds, right? That is what the President is doing because these are under conditional implementation. This means the President is protecting public funds.)

Unprogrammed appropriations are standby funds for extra projects. These are funded when there are excess funds due to the government’s excess revenue collection or when additional grants or loans from foreign or domestic sources are secured.

Earlier, some opposition lawmakers in the House of Representatives joined Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III in calling for the removal of unprogrammed funds from next year’s national budget as a move to prevent the further abuse of public funds.

Previous congressional hearings have revealed that questionable flood control projects worth at least P600 million are funded by unprogrammed appropriations under the 2023 national budget. — JMA, GMA Integrated News