Imee Marcos: AKAP ‘defunded’ billions from gov’t pension

Senator Imee Marcos claims that the P26.7 billion insertion in the 2024 national budget to bankroll the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) has “defunded billions of pesos in pensions for retired military and uniformed personnel as well as government workers.” (File photo from the Senate Social Media Unit)

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Imee Marcos asserted that the P26.7 billion insertion in the 2024 national budget to bankroll the Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) has “defunded billions of pesos in pensions for retired military and uniformed personnel as well as government workers.”

According to her, the pensions suffered a reduction of more than P10 billion in this year’s national spending plan due to the whopping inserted allocation for AKAP.

“A comparison between the National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted to Congress and the General Appropriations Act for 2024 shows that the Pension and Gratuity Fund suffered a P110.25-billion cut, from P253,205,826,000 to P142,956,826,000,” Marcos said in a statement Tuesday.

She also noted the P5.4 billion cut in the P15.31 billion budget proposed in the NEP for the Department of Migrant Workers, while there was a “complete deletion of programmed funding” for foreign-assisted projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Marcos earlier linked AKAP to the signature campaign launched by movers of a people’s initiative (PI) to amend the 1987 Constitution.

She believed that AKAP was among the government aid programs used to lure Filipinos into signing the PI’s petition for Charter change. She considered the PI as “fake.”

“The President did not mention AKAP in the NEP, nor was it in the bicameral version of the [General Appropriations Act], yet it appeared in the final, printed version,” Marcos emphasized.

While the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has already defended the allocation, Marcos said there’s still a need to investigate the “magical” cash aid.

READ: DSWD defends AKAP: ‘We don’t create magical projects’

In a Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum earlier this month, Marcos disclosed that the allocation for AKAP is not entirely P26.7 billion, but a whopping P60 billion. According to her, only some of it was lodged within the DSWD.

“Ang iba ay hinahanap pa natin kasi P60 [billion] daw ang total nito eh,” she said then.

(We are still looking for the other portions because they say its total is P60 billion.)

Before Marcos’ disclosure, Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co, who heads the House committee on appropriations, already confirmed that a P60 billion allocation would be made for AKAP, which is intended to benefit around 12 million Filipino households.

READ: Magic project? Gonzales says Senate approved funding for AKAP

This, however, did not sit well with Marcos.

“Labu-labong P60 billion ang inilaan. Di natin alam kung para sa bigas, o sa trabaho, o sa outright ayuda,” Marcos added, further clarifying that she’s not against AKAP, but she does not favor its potential use for “political ends.”

(Ambiguously allotted was P60 billion. We don’t know if it’s for rice, jobs, or outright cash assistance.)

Before the possible legislative probe into AKAP, Marcos said she was already consulting with the Department of Budget Management and DSWD.