Congress just moved to boost cash aid for families in crisis (AICS) to ₱32.06 billion in 2026, marking one of the largest proposed realignments in next year’s national budget.
The decision, made at Monday’s hearing of the House appropriations committee’s budget amendments review subpanel, came on the heels of a proposal by Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan to augment the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) allocation for the Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations program.
The increase would be sourced from a sweeping ₱255-billion cut to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Originally, the DSWD requested ₱37.68 billion, but the 2026 National Expenditure Program approved only ₱26.97 billion.
The same hearing also endorsed additional funds across key social programs: ₱14.81 billion for the Department of Labor and Employment’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD), ₱3.31 billion for the agency’s livelihood and emergency employment scheme, and ₱356 million for the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority’s training for work scholarship plan.
The proposed reallocations highlight how Congress is reshaping the budget to favor direct welfare programs over infrastructure spending, a move that has sparked both praise and skepticism.
In the Senate, the budget shuffle triggered calls for greater accountability. Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Senator Panfilo Lacson, chair of the blue ribbon committee, met with the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) on Monday to examine how so-called “individual amendments” or insertions are being made. Lacson said he hopes for an agreement with House leaders to prohibit lawmakers from embedding such allocations, particularly for infrastructure projects.
The Ateneo School of Government (Asog) also weighed in, urging the ICI to investigate not only legislators but also the executive secretary and the Development Budget Coordinating Committee for allowing “huge budget cuts and diversions” in past years.
“We are appalled by the gravity of human greed that we are witnessing,” Asog said in a position paper, pointing to reallocations in 2023, 2024 and 2025 that passed without resistance from the executive branch.
