MANILA, Philippines?President Aquino has approved the infusion of an additional P1.75 billion to the nearly depleted calamity fund for 2010, Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said Friday.

Abad said in a statement the amount, which was based on the recommendation of the Department of Budget and Management, comes from items in the national budget that were not used in the first half of the year and thus could be considered as savings.

?The President ordered [the DBM] to find a way to augment the fund and he acted on and approved our recommendation quickly,? he said.

The budget chief added that the swift approval will ensure that resources will be available to defray expenses for calamity relief that impending typhoons may bring about before the end of the year.

?Although the previous administration has not provided adequately for areas ... frequently affected by typhoons, President Aquino wants to make sure that these areas will no longer be forsaken should they be devastated in the coming months,? Abad said.

He explained that the P1.75 billion will be taken from the P3.5 billion allotted for unfilled positions in various agencies which has remained unused as DBM data show.

Abad said the DBM recommended that the President declare the unused allocation as savings as provided for in the General Appropriations Act of 2010.

However, Abad said the P1.75 billion will not completely replenish the original amount of P2 billion for this year's calamity fund although officials earlier said the fund had a balance of P592 million.

?With the typhoon months still to come and looking at the experience with calamities in the past years, additional sources of augmentation will have to be sought,? Abad said.

Earlier this week, Abad lamented the Arroyo administration?s alleged lack of foresight for spending 70 percent of the calamity fund early this year ?without considering the need for resources come the rainy season in the second semester.?

He also said first-half disbursements of the fund lacked equity, considering that P108 million of the P1.4 billion released went to Pampanga.

In contrast, only P5 million was released to Pangasinan, which suffered the most when typhoon ?Pepeng? ravaged the country in September 2009.

?It's puzzling that the previous administration almost spent the entire fund in the first months of 2010 when, based on their experience in previous years, the typhoon season sets in during the middle or later part of the year,? Abad said.

Last Wednesday, he said it was ?not unfair? to conclude that calamity fund releases to Pampanga were used to fund the election campaign of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who now the second district of Pampanga in the lower house of Congress.