AKAP, kind of category 5 money storm?

I am not a clairvoyant. The quatrains of Nostradamus sometimes engage me more because I do not find meanings to his words no matter how I try. The word meteorologist cannot attach to me also for I do not forecast weather. Finally, neither am I connected with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to be able to see the flow of money nor am I a Malacañang Palace insider to know government policies on allocation of public funds. But, despite my limitations, I still predict an unprecedented rain of peso bills in the days leading to the May 2025 election and such downpour is not unlike in volume than a category five storm. These are in the form of AKAP, AICS, and TAPAT.

For this article, let me talk only about AKAP. Thanks to the brilliance of propagandists, there is in the national budget for 2025 a brand-new appropriation of ?26 billion coined in a touchingly-significant description for a socialist kind of a program. How can you ever say that the Ayuda para sa kapos ang kita program (AKAP) is not a relevant social project? There are millions of us Filipinos who are not earning enough (is this a correct English translation of kapos ang kita?). The way it is labeled the sublime purpose of AKAP is to alleviate the plight of minimum-wage earners affected by the high prices of basic commodities. As designed, the beneficiaries of this program are fishers, market vendors, construction workers, and drivers.

The administration said that the AKAP will be conditionally implemented, another brilliantly-crafted phrase, which I dare claim to be intentionally expressed in order to mislead our countrymen. When explained, the phraseology morosely meant that there would be guidelines still to be written by the combined wise men of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) before the funds are to be released to the supposed beneficiaries. The guidelines shall be drawn to serve as a sieve to remove those unintended from the real needy.

What we are informed is that the amounts to be given to AKAP beneficiaries range from ?1,000 to ?10,000, subject to the assessment of the DSWD social worker. Yet, there are moneys beyond ?10,000 to be given but for such amounts, a guarantee letter approved by the DSWD secretary (who holds office in Manila) or his representative will be required. Let me emphasize that - “a guarantee letter approved by the DSWD Secretary xxx.” What is that guarantee letter? What kind of guarantee is required? And to whom is that guarantee letter addressed? Now here is an admittedly mischievous question: For a beneficiary who lives in Sitio Langub, Barangay Sirao, Cebu City, (a difficultly-accessible place here in our city) how can the DSWD secretary guarantee what?

The critics of the Marcos administration assert that this unbelievably-huge fund will actually be coursed thru candidates allied with the current dispensation and this will be used as election logistics. Aside from obviously-biased information reaching me that ?80M, ?100M, or ?120M will be allotted to preferred administration candidates and which sums will be distributed to voters by the DSWD based upon the list provided by politicians, I had no way of substantiating these allusions. To be fair though, the DSWD secretary declared that they will handle the AKAP without consulting politicians.

Are there clairvoyants, Nostradamuses, and economists to tell us if AKAP is really a campaign fund?