'Senate won't allow unprogrammed funds'

The Senate will not allow billions of pesos in lump-sum allocations under unprogrammed appropriations in the House-approved version of the 2026 national budget, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said yesterday.

- By NEIL JAYSON SERVALLOS

Speaker Faustino Dy III had informed him that there were unprogrammed funds totalling P80 billion in the House-approved budget, but Sotto said the Senate was reviewing reports that the amount is actually P200 billion.

Sotto said he would clarify the matter with Dy today in person, but stressed that the Senate would still disallow unprogrammed funds.

“Whatever it is, if what I heard from the Speaker was right — P80 billion or the rumored P255 billion — we will not let it become unprogrammed funds just like that. For what purpose? Unprogrammed fund, but in bulk? Just a huge chunk there? Lump sum? Unacceptable,” he told radio dzBB in an interview yesterday.

Sotto stressed that the Senate’s position would serve as its “beachhead” in the bicameral conference for the budget. He said all funds must be accounted for, unlike in previous years wherein funds for initiatives such as the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS) and the Medical Assistance to Indigent Patients (MAIP) were not programmed into the institutions supposed to be implementing them.