DBM releases ₧1B more for Odette-hit areas; ’22 calamity fund totals ₧20B

THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released an additional P1 billion on Monday and is eyeing to release another P4 billion before this year ends to aid local government units (LGUS) in responding to the damages caused by Typhoon Odette.

DBM Officer-in-charge Tina Canda said on Monday this would be sourced from this year’s national budget.

Including the P1 billion that was released on December 24 to the affected LGUS and sourced from the Office of the President’s contingent fund, this would bring the total funds to be released by the government this year due to the calamity because of Typhoon Odette to P6 billion.

“In accordance with the President’s order, we released P1 billion last Friday for the local government units and today we released another P billion, also per his instructions. We will also release P4 billion in aid to local government units which they will distribute to those affected by typhoon Odette,” Canda said in an televised interview on Laging Handa.

Fund source

SOUGHT to clarify the funding source, Canda told Businessmirror that the additional P1 billion will once again come from the Office of the President’s Contingent Fund while the P4 billion will come from this year’s unprogrammed fund.

“We will charge the P2B from Contingent. Then P4B from the unprogrammed fund which the BTR [Bureau of the Treasury] certified as available,” she said, partly in Filipino.

As of press time, the DBM has yet to release the breakdown of the allocation per LGU in terms of the additional P1 billion released.

The President earlier vowed to release P10 billion in funds due to the calamity, but Canda said the remaining P4 billion will just be released next year.

In terms of agencies’ budget requests, Canda said the Department of Social Welfare and Development has already requested an additional P600 million while the Office of Civil Defense and the Philippine National Police sought another P100 million and P25 million, respectively.

Last Friday, the DBM released the P1 billion in financial assistance to cover affected LGUS in six regions recently placed under State of Calamity by President Duterte.

The DBM computation of the shares of covered regions was based on the number of affected families or persons, and on the damage incurred in the infrastructure and agriculture sectors, according to the Report of the Disaster Response Operations Monitoring and Information Center.

P20-B calamity fund in ‘22

ON Monday, Senator Juan Edgardo Angara assured availability of P20-billion funding for calamity response allocated in the P5.024-trillion 2022 national budget, which President Duterte is expected to sign into law this week.

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee gave the assurance after DBM’S Canda said only P4-billion is available in the current 2021 budget that President Duterte can swiftly release to typhoon-ravaged areas.

President Duterte earlier pledged an initial P10-billion aid to affected local government units (LGUS).

On Monday, Angara said “savings” for 2021 in some agencies can still be used also for calamity response.

Duterte was expected to sign into law within the week the Congress-ratified P5.024-trillion national budget in its entirety.

The last national budget to be enacted under the Duterte administration has the theme, “Sustaining the Legacy of Real Change for Future Generations.”

The P5.024-trillion national budget is equivalent to 22.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) and is higher by 11.5 percent than the 2021 national budget.

For 2022, the government expects to generate P3.290-trillion in total revenues, representing 14.9 percent of the GDP.