After AKAP dropped from 2026 budget, House to weigh restoring aid program

MANILA, Philippines — House appropriations chair Mikaela Suansing said she “sees the value” of the Ayuda para sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP) and that she will discuss with other House members whether it should be funded next year.

This comes after the executive branch decided not to allocate funds for the financial aid program in the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP), citing limited fiscal space.

For Suansing, AKAP has helped many constituents of House members, as well as sectors that could not benefit from the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations (AICS), which offers similar financial aid. 

“Personally, siguro ang masasabi ko, itong mga nakaraang taon, nakita ko yung naitulong ng AKAP sa iba’t iba naming constituencies. We’ve seen the value of AKAP in terms of helping constituencies or sectors that were previously untapped by AICS,” she said on Thursday, August 14. 

(Personally, I would say that in recent years, I’ve seen how AKAP has helped our various constituencies. We’ve seen the value of AKAP in reaching constituencies or sectors that were previously not covered by AICS.)

Difference with AICS. Unlike AICS, which is for those dealing with crises or emergencies, AKAP offers assistance to individuals earning less than the minimum wage of up to P10,000.

Apart from providing cash aid, AICS also covers expenses for medical care, funerals, education, transportation and food. AKAP, meanwhile, offers rice relief as well. 

Both are implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), whose social workers are responsible for vetting qualified beneficiaries. Legislators, on the other hand, could only refer potential aid recipients.  

Where AKAP was used. After tropical cyclones Crising, Dante and Emong, along with the enhanced southwest monsoon that inundated several towns, House Speaker Martin Romualdez said 36 districts would each get P10 million from the AKAP fund to help in recovery efforts.

In 2025, funding for AKAP was initially rejected by both the House and Senate, but was restored during the bicameral conference committee, ending with a budget of about P26 billion.

Confer with House leadership

Since Congress has the power to insert and remove line items in the NEP, so long as it maintains the total approved budget, the House could propose to fund AKAP again in 2026. 

This explains why Suansing said, as the appropriations committee chair, she would have to defer to the House leadership as well as to what the chamber thinks would be best for AKAP. 

“So that’s why, as I said, I would need to confer with my colleagues in the House because I would need to know, I guess, the disposition of the whole House with regard to AKAP,” she said.  

“This would have to be a collective decision on the part of the House whether or not to add funding for AKAP for this budget cycle,” she added. 

However, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. warned in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) that he would return the budget bill to Congress if it deviates from the priorities of the NEP. 

House Majority Leader Sandro Marcos said Wednesday, August 13, he would block any budget on the floor that strays from the NEP. "As majority leader, I won't allow that to happen," he added. 

Suansing, as chair, is committed to respecting all the agencies and their heads during the budget hearings, which will start on August 18. 

Budget reforms. The House will also implement reforms that will ensure transparency and accountability in the budget process from start to finish. 

This includes livestreaming the bicam committee hearings, when both chambers of Congress reconcile differences in the proposed budget bill before ratification, as well as actively engaging with civil society organizations. 

According to the tentative schedule, the House will start committee budget deliberations with the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) starting next week. 

This is composed of four government agencies, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev), Department of Finance (DOF) and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The House expects to complete committee hearings on the proposed budgets of each agency by mid-September. Together with the Senate, it aims to pass the 2026 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) on third and final reading before the October 11 recess. 

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