FACT CHECK: DBM’s 90% budget release in April does not mean actual spending

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DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman clarifies that there’s a difference between the terms ‘comprehensively released’ and ‘actual spending’

Claim: With 90% of the Philippines’ 2025 national budget already released in April, only 10% remains available for spending.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The claim can be found on a May 17 post on the Facebook page “Jay Sonza.”

The post states: “UBOS NA ANG PERA. 90% ng 2025 national budget naipalabas na nitong Abril. Mayo pa lang tayo, 10% na lang ang perang panggastos ng gobyerno.”(The money is gone. 90% of the 2025 national budget already released this April. We are just in May, and there is only 10% left of the government budget to spend.)

As of writing, the post already has around 373 reactions, 84 comments, and 85 shares. 

The 90% budget release referred to in the post can be found in a Department of Budget and Management (DBM) document titled “Status of Allotment Releases (as of April 30, 2025)” which states that as of that date, around 89.5% (rounded off to 90%) of the national budget has been released. 

The facts: The 90% budget release reported by the DBM as of April 2025 does not refer to actual spending. DBM Secretary Amenah Pangandaman clarified this in an April 23 article published in the Manila Bulletin.

Referring to DBM’s release of around 81% of the national budget as of March 2025, Pangandaman said: “Some confuse the term ‘comprehensively released’ with ‘actual spending,’ misinterpreting that the government has already spent almost 81 percent of the budget and that there are no more available funds.” 

Pangandaman added that “comprehensive release” means that “funds are readily available for agencies to use…without delay” but spending itself is “not automatic” and adds that “the total amount is not yet spent.”

A July 8, 2022 article from Inquirer.net contains the same clarification regarding the 93.2% release of the 2022 national budget as of June 2022: “These were budget releases to agencies and not yet actual spending.”

Percival Bueser is a graduate of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. Learn more about Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program here.

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