DBM: Gov’t needs P155B to fund programs under Uplift bill

MANILA, Philippines — The Marcos administration will need at least P155 billion to fund programs and projects, including the possible expansion of subsidies for the middle class, to address the energy and price shocks caused by the Middle East conflict.

The amount is only the estimated funding requirement of the Office of the Executive Secretary for the proposed Uplift law, which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said will be an urgent measure to help Filipinos cope with soaring prices of fuel and basic goods.

“[T]his figure is not fixed. In public financial management terms, this remains a dynamic and evolving funding envelope, as the final amount will depend on how much participating agencies can realign, repurpose, or defer from their existing appropriations to support targeted interventions addressing the Middle East crisis,” Budget Undersecretary Goddes Hope Libiran said in a briefing in Malacañang on Thursday.

“In other words, we are not looking at entirely new spending, but rather a strategic reprioritization within the current fiscal phase consistent with prudent fiscal management and in line with our whole-of-government efforts,” she added.

The funding requirement will still undergo “further refinements” as agencies finalize their respective proposals in upcoming interagency meetings.

According to Libiran, funding for items under the Uplift law will not come from a supplemental budget but from savings from programs, activities, and projects (PAPs) that agencies “may be willing to give up or deprioritize.”

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During the fifth interagency Unified Package for Livelihoods, Industry, Food, and Transport (Uplift) committee meeting on Tuesday, Cabinet members discussed the proposal to submit a draft Uplift bill to the House of Representatives and the Senate.

According to Palace Press Officer Claire Castro, the legislation was considered a “priority” and “urgent” measure by the President.

While Malacañang gave no deadline for Congress, the president expects the enrolled bill to be on his table for signature “soon,” as “this is a timely measure.”

The 20th Congress is currently adjourned, with sessions set to resume on May 4.

The proposed Uplift law aims to provide a list of PAPs that may be funded from allocated budgets.

These include another round of subsidies for workers in the transport and agricultural sectors, assistance to members of the middle class, and additional funding for the expansion of the Service Contracting Program and Fuel Subsidy Program for public utility vehicles.

It also aims to clear legal impediments for the executive to tap its savings.

The proposed law seeks to remove the two-year prohibition on including in the proposed budget any items declared as savings.

It also seeks to give the government authority to utilize unreleased appropriations and unobligated allotments from the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), as well as unreleased appropriations from the 2026 GAA.

Under budget laws, if a PAP is finally discontinued or abandoned, making it declared as savings, it cannot be proposed again for funding for the next two fiscal years.

Unreleased appropriations are items authorized by Congress under the GAA but for which the Department of Budget and Management has not yet released a Special Allotment Release Order or Notice of Cash Allocation.

Shadow of DAP

Under general rules, unreleased appropriations can neither be realigned nor augmented. They also cannot be pooled into savings.

Meanwhile, unobligated allotments may be declared as savings only under certain rules.

The proposed legislation may be Malacañang’s move to ensure the legality of the executive’s tapping of savings and to prevent another scenario similar to the savings-funded Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), which was eventually declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

In its 2014 ruling, the SC noted that while the DAP had a “noble end,” it violated Section 25(5), Article VI of the Constitution, which prohibits cross-border transfers of appropriations from one branch of government to another.

READ: SC affirms ruling vs DAP

Under the Constitution, the president, the Senate president, the speaker of the House of Representatives, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, the heads of constitutional commissions enjoying fiscal autonomy, and the Ombudsman are authorized to use savings for augmentation—transferring funds to cover deficiencies in other existing, approved programs within their respective offices.

The SC also ruled that the disbursement of unobligated allotments as savings and their realignment to items or projects not found in the GAA to fund DAP were in violation of the Constitution.

The DAP was a stimulus package under the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III, designed to fast-track public spending and boost economic growth by funding high-impact budgetary programs and projects.

It aimed to accelerate government spending in response to slow fund utilization and to mobilize idle or unspent funds toward priority programs.

Funds used for PAPs identified through the DAP were sourced from savings generated by the government and unprogrammed funds from windfall revenue collections, including the unexpected remittance of dividends from government-owned and controlled corporations and government financial institutions, as well as the sale of government assets. /mcm