Speaker Martin Romualdez announced on Wednesday that funding for the new PHP60 billion Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita (AKAP) program will continue in 2025.

Romualdez made the statement as he welcomed the signing by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. of the PHP5.768-trillion national budget for 2024.

He claimed that Congress introduced AKAP, which aims to extend cash assistance to poor and low-income families, in the 2024 budget for the first time under the Marcos administration.

Each household with a monthly income of P23,000 or less would receive a PHP5,000 one-time cash assistance. The initial target for the PHP60 bilion program is 12 million families.

“We intend this to be a continuing program to help our people. Thus, it is critical that we should make it work in its first year of implementation,” Romualdez said.

Romualdez said he does not foresee any difficulties in implementing AKAP.

“We just have to make sure that the beneficiaries are qualified under government criteria and the money reaches them on time and with sufficient safeguards in place,” Romualdez said.

Romualdez, meanwhile, urged national agencies and local government units to prepare for the implementation of the 2024 national spending program, saying that they should hit the ground running in carrying out the budget at the start of the new year.

“The budget is the most important piece of legislation Congress passes each year and the President signs into law. It is the blueprint for national development, for sustaining economic growth, for creating more job and income opportunities, and in general, for improving the lot of our people,” he said. (PNA)

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