MANILA, Philippines—Despite a bigger national budget for 2021, the urgent need for funding to fight the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release money at a faster pace with P2.63 trillion in January.
Last month’s releases accounted for 58.3 percent of this year’s record P4.51-trillion appropriation, new DBM data on Tuesday (Feb. 9) showed.
In comparison, 51.9 percent or P2.13 trillion out of the P4.1-trillion 2020 budget was released in January last year.
For funds under the 2021 General Appropriations Act (GAA) or Republic Act (RA) No. 11518, allotment releases last month amounted to P2.38 trillion or 77 percent of the P3.09-trillion program.
Comprehensive releases to government departments in January reached P2.3 trillion or 87 percent of the programmed P2.65 trillion.
On special purpose funds, P74.41 billion or 16.9 percent of the P440.81 billion allotted for 2020 was already released.
Automatic appropriations—programmed over a period prescribed by law through outstanding legislation requiring periodic action by Congress—worth P251.15 billion or 17.7 percent of the P1.42-trillion program for this year were released in January.
These automatic appropriations included:
- Retirement and life insurance premium
- Local government units’ (LGUs) internal revenue allotment (IRA)
- Pensions of former presidents and their widows
- Special account in the general fund, net lending, interest payments, releases under the tax expenditures fund (TEF) for customs duties and taxes to be paid for government importation
- Block grant for the newly formed Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
A balance of P1.88 trillion remained to be released by the DBM for the rest of the year.
President Rodrigo Duterte had extended the validity of the 2020 budget until end-2021, but its pending funds can be released starting only on Feb. 2 alongside unreleased funding under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2 law, which was also extended until mid-2021.