Calls to stop AKAP rejected by Palace

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April 1, 2025 | 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — Implementation of the Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program will continue because many Filipinos depend on it, Malacañang said yesterday, amid concerns that some politicians are using AKAP to get votes in the coming elections.

“It’s hard to stop giving aid to the people. They also rely on that,” Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro said at a press briefing.

Several groups have filed a petition before the Supreme Court for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the implementation of AKAP under the 2025 national budget.

The petitioners, which include 1Sambayan Coalition, Sanlakas and Advocates for National Interest, argued that AKAP has the “badges of a congressional pork barrel” that legislators control.

The Makabayan bloc has criticized the program, saying it was designed to enable vote buying ahead of the May polls.

“The administration will not be able to stop this immediately as some of our countrymen will probably suffer, especially if they are used to receiving this kind of aid to meet their daily needs,” Castro said.

The Palace press officer made the statement as a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed the country’s hunger rate reaching its highest level since the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020.

Citing the SWS poll, Castro stressed the need to continue the AKAP to address hunger.

“The survey says that the hunger rate is allegedly increasing even though we have many aid programs,” Castro said.

The PCO official said the administration would look into the SWS survey to find out which areas have posted rising hunger incidence. “If there are any shortcomings, we can alleviate these types of situations,” she said.

TRO on budget

Meanwhile, the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC), the Freedom from Debt Coalition and the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) filed a petition for a TRO with the Supreme Court on the implementation of the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).

The 19-page petition for TRO, the third sought for the 2025 GAA, was filed by TDC national chairman Benjo Basas, FDC secretary-general Rovik Obanil and PAHRA secretary general Edgardo Cabalitan Jr.

Named respondents were President Marcos, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Petitioners said the SC should declare this year’s budget program unconstitutional because it did not give education the highest priority.

“Petitioners vigorously assert that, motivated by national interest, the education budget for 2025 should receive the highest budgetary allotment. Recent education data by global and national institutions reveal that education in the country is in crisis,” the petitioners said.

They cited the country’s low score in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) of creative thinking abilities of 15-year-old students.

With a mean score of 14 out of 60 possible points, students in the Philippines reportedly scored significantly lower than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average in creative thinking.

The World Bank Learning Poverty Index for 2024 reportedly showed that 91 percent of Filipino children at late primary age are not proficient in reading.

“Learning poverty” or being “learning poor” reportedly means being unable to read and understand a short age-appropriate text by age 10.

While government budget for education has improved from 2.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product to 3.2 percent of the GDP in the last 10 years, the Philippines still failed to meet the recommended education spending benchmark of four to six percent of GDP under the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization 2030 Incheon Declaration.

They said budget allocation for the education sector in the current fiscal year has been substantially increased through the inclusion of non-traditional education-related funds from various agencies and offices such as the Philippine Military Academy under the Department of National Defense with P1.6 billion, the Philippine National Police Academy under the Philippine National Police with P1.4 billion and the Philippine Science High School System with P2.7 billion and the Science Education Institute with P7.5 billion, which are both under the Department of Science and Technology.

“The budget for education-related infrastructure is included under the education sector to give the Department of Public Works and Highways the final budget of P1.05 trillion, making it appear that the education budget got more than the budget for infrastructure,” they added.

In the 2025 national budget, the principal debt payments amounted to more than P1.2 trillion or P200 billion more than the budget allocated for the education sector.

‘GAA aboveboard’

Leaders of the House of Representatives have disputed the petitioners’ claims. “I stand by the regularity of the 2025 GAA. It is aboveboard,” House Assistant Majority Leader Jude Acidre said. He added they welcome the SC’s requiring the submission of a copy of the enrolled bill.

“At least for now, we can establish the enrolled bill doctrine, which is well-respected in jurisprudence that will be the basis of what is stated in the enrolled bill, establishing the regularity of the procedure by which the law was enacted,” the Tingog party-list congressman stressed.

Acidre is a member of the House contingent in the bicameral conference committee.

He described the SC petition as baseless and so is the graft complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against Speaker Martin Romualdez.

“These have all been answered by the Senate, and in the Senate by the senators themselves. This has also been answered by our senior vice chairperson of the House appropriations committee, Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo of Marikina City,” Acidre said.

Acidre emphasized that both the Senate and House leaderships have already addressed the issue of purported blank spaces in the bicameral conference committee report.

Rep. Jil Bongalon of Ako Bicol party-list also expressed confidence that the high court will decide in their favor.

“We are confident that even if we submit or send the original copies of the GAA of 2025, including the encoded bill to the SC, nothing in those documents can we see any blank items, especially the amounts that are being questioned,” Bongalon said.

“I think this would also be better in a sense that the SC justices will see for themselves if there are indeed blanks or what the petitioners alleged as virtual blank cheques. So, nothing in those documents that there are blank items in the enrolled bill, also in the GAA,” he said. — Evelyn Macairan, Delon Porcalla