Before Duterte gone, DBM releases 93.2 percent of entire 2022 budget

PHOTO: Official Gazette

MANILA, Philippines—Before Rodrigo Duterte stepped down as president on June 30, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had already released 93.2 percent, or P4.68 trillion, of the entire P5.02-trillion national budget for 2022.

These were budget releases to agencies and not yet actual spending.

Allotment releases were usually being distributed throughout the year, depending on the schedule to roll-out projects. Implementing agencies obligate their respective funds or award contracts, before disbursing money.

For the second half of the year, the Marcos administration still needed to release the remaining P343.9 billion in this year’s budget.

DBM data showed that the pace of releasing this year’s budget funds was faster than the 85.1-percent rate—or P3.83 trillion out of the P4.51-trillion 2021 budget—released as of end-June last year.

Among funds under Republic Act (RA) No. 11639—or the 2022 general appropriations act (GAA)—allotment releases from January to June amounted to P3.07 trillion, or 91.8 percent of the P3.34-trillion full-year program.

Comprehensive releases to government departments as of June reached P2.78 trillion, or 96.3 percent of the programmed P2.88 trillion for 2022. On special purpose funds, P290.3 billion, or 63.5 percent of the P457.2 billion allotted for this year, had been released.

Automatic appropriations—programmed over a period prescribed by law through legislation requiring periodic action by Congress–amounting to P1.41 trillion, or 83.6 percent of the P1.68-trillion program for 2022, had been released during the six-month period.

These automatic appropriations included:

• Retirement and life insurance premium
• Local government units’ (LGUs) national tax allotment (NTA)
• Block grant for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM)
• 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

Also released during the first six months of 2022 were P204.6 billion in continuing appropriations from last year’s budget, P128.3 billion in unprogrammed appropriations and P32.6 billion in other automatic appropriations.

TSB