2024 budget geared for aid, lawmaker says

House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan (Photo from the website of the Philippine Congress)

MANILA, Philippines — House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan on Wednesday maintained that the cash aid and subsidy programs included in the 2024 national budget would help tide vulnerable sectors over likely increases in the cost of basic goods due to the expected effect of the El Niño phenomenon on the country’s agricultural production.

“We are counting on the expanded cash aid and other forms of government support, such as food stamps, to serve as a buffer and provide relief to disadvantaged households,” Libanan, representative of the 4Ps party-list group, said in a statement.

“Along with the recent increases in the regional minimum wage rates, the subsidies will help struggling families grapple with the upward pressure on consumer prices,” the lawmaker added.

He noted that the tripartite wages and productivity boards in 16 regions have ordered increases ranging from P30 to P50 in the daily minimum wage of employees in the private sector, which would benefit some 3.82 million workers.

Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez previously announced that the 2024 General Appropriations Act included P60 billion for the “Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita program” or Akap, which will provide a one-time P5,000 cash dole to 12 million low-income households.

The 2024 national budget, which the President signed last week, also provided P30 billion for the Department of Labor and Employment’s continuing program Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged or Displaced Workers and P23 billion for the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation or AICS.

The subsidies are on top of the P112.8 billion set aside for the conditional cash transfers to 4.4 million households in the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps.

The Department of Science and Technology has said that some 65 provinces may experience drought, three consecutive months of below-normal rainfall conditions, or a greater than 60 percent reduction in average rainfall, by May 2024 as a result of a stronger El Niño phenomenon.