Ex-Usec: Akap still susceptible to ‘politicking’

Mall employees, tenants and agency hires queue to receive 5 kilos of rice and P 5,000 financial assistance during mall tour distribution of Akap (Ayuda Para sa Kapos ang Kita Program), initiated by House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and implemented by Department of Social Welfare and Development, at SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City. Around 16,000 beneficiaries of the mall are expected to receive the financial aid which aims to provide immediate financial relief to the poor, “near poor,” minimum wage earners, low-income earners and those in financial distress. Recently, the Senate Panel on Finance has recommended the deletion of the controversial Akap in the 2025 national funding after it was linked to the signature campaign for Charter change. —Inquirer photo/Richard A. Reyes

MANILA, Philippines — A fiscal policy expert said the government can do away with an aid program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), maintaining that it is being merely used by lawmakers for “political gain.”

“The primary question really is: Do legislators have a significant role in distributing aid?” former Finance Undersecretary Cielo Magno said when asked whether the Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (Akap) remains susceptible to being used as a platform for vote-buying and corruption.

READ: DSWD: Akap beneficiaries don’t need political backers

“They (the lawmakers) do not. This is clear politicking,” she told the Inquirer in a text message on Saturday night.

The distribution of Akap is outside the mandate of lawmakers, said Magno, associate professor at the School of Economics of the University of the Philippines.

“It’s clear that the House of Representatives are using the Akap for political gain, and the Senate is in cahoots with them,” she said of the assistance program launched by President Marcos and Speaker Martin Romualdez on May 18 this year.

“It is not within the mandate of the [House] to distribute aid but they’re trying to use it to their advantage,” Magno said, despite an earlier assertion by Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian that politicians would have no role in the distribution of Akap’s P26-billion budget next year, restored last Wednesday by the bicameral conference committee.

Local governments

According to the DSWD, some 4 million beneficiaries—including 589,000 in Metro Manila—have already availed themselves of Akap’s various aid packages amounting to P20.7 billion.

Gatchalian, in a radio interview on Friday, said in response to Akap’s restored budget that “the whole P26 billion will be implemented by DSWD, not politicians, not our public servants.”

Once the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) is approved with the restored Akap budget, the DSWD would craft a new set of implementing guidelines, Social Welfare Assistant Secretary Irene Dumlao told the Inquirer.

Like her principal, Dumlao emphasized that all potential beneficiaries go through assessment and interview by social workers, who will also verify the documents they submit for eligibility.

But the DSWD had also issued Memorandum Circular No. 4 in March providing that Akap funds may also be extended with the help of the local governments.

This aid, however, will be limited to “rice assistance,” according to the memo, which also stipulated that the DSWD should enter into a memorandum of agreement with the local governments regarding “the details of the transfer of the funds and the requirements for [their] liquidation.”

Akap’s other aid packages, besides cash relief, include food, medical and funeral assistance.

Expand 4Ps

Magno said that instead of keeping Akap’s budget, the DSWD can expand its Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), by lowering the income threshold of intended beneficiaries.

But Gatchalian maintained that Akap was different from 4Ps since it constituted immediate relief for the “near-poor,” minimum wage earners and others in financial distress—whereas the DSWD’s flagship poverty program which provides monthly assistance to the “poorest of the poor.”